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13 7 lượt tải Tải xuống

Chia sẻ Báo cáo tài liệu

Cam IELTS 14 reading test 1

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN’S PLAY

Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale

turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she’s creating

an enchanting world. Although she isn’t aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take

her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important

repercussions in her adult life.

Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her

younger brother. When she bosses him around as his ‘teacher’, she’s practising how

to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle

down with a board game, she’s learning about the need to follow rules and take turns

with a partner.

‘Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,’

says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of

Cambridge, UK. ‘It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults

and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.’

Recognizing the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek

philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and

ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.

But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in

play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. ‘The

opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are

becoming increasingly scarce,’ he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of

risk to do with traffic, as well as parents’ increased wish to protect their children from

being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on ‘earlier is better’ which is leading

to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to

develop policies concerned with children’s right to play, and to consider implications

for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the

evidence to base policies on.

‘The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and

unpredictable – but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old “to play”, then you as the

researcher have intervened,’ explains Dr Sara Baker. ‘And we want to know what the

long-term impact of play is. It’s a real challenge.’

Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of

how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the

impact it has on the child’s later life.

Now, thanks to the university’s new Centre for Research on Play in Education,

Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of

researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child

develops.

‘A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children’s self-

control,’ explains Baker. ‘This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking

progresses – it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging

activities.’

In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that

children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an

unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. ‘This sort of evidence makes up think

that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-

solvers in the long run.’

If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it

could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-

regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.

Gibson adds: ‘Playful behavior is also an important indicator of healthy social and

emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing

children at play can give us important clues about their well-being and can even be

useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.’

Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to

supporting children’s writing. ‘Many primary school children find writing difficult, but

we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an

instructional one.’ Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first

played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first

created their story with Lego*, with similar results. ‘Many teachers commented that

they had always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about.

With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of

the project.’

Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early

1970s, when, as he describes, ‘the teaching of young children was largely a quiet

backwater, untroubled by any serious intellectual debate or controversy.’ Now, the

landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as school starting age.

‘Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as

something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not

lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human

achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a

rich diet of play experiences.’

———————————-

* Lego: coloured plastic building blocks and other pieces that can be joined together

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Children’s play

Uses of children’s play

• building a ‘magical kingdom’ may help develop …………………………………1

• board games involve ……………………………. and turn-taking2

Recent changes affecting children’s play

• populations of ………………………… have grown3

• opportunities for free play are limited due to

– fear of ………………………………4

– fear of ………………………………5

– increased …………………………… in schools6

International policies on children’s play

• it is difficult to find 7 …………………………… to support new policies

• research needs to study the impact of play on the rest of the child’s 8

……………………………..

Children with good self-control are known to be likely to do well at school later on.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The way a child plays may provide information about possible medical problems.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Playing with dolls was found to benefit girls’ writing more than boys’ writing.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Children had problems thinking up ideas when they first created the story with Lego.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

People nowadays regard children’s play as less significant than they did in the past.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The growth of bike-sharing schemes around the

world

How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing

schemes

The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer’s day in

Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organization that came up with the idea, was a group

of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which

was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air

pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number

of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and

inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various

locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport.

Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in

Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme

succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention – particularly when it came to

publicising Provo’s aims – but struggled to get off the ground. The police were

opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed

around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-

sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. ‘The first Witte Fietsenplan

was just a symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few bikes white, that was all.

Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two

years later.’

Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte

Fietsenplan to the city council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam

would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,’ he explains. ‘I

made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle – per person, per

kilometer – would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public

transport per person per kilometer.’ Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected

the plan. ‘They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future

for the car,’ says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.

Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two

Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the

world’s first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped

a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.’ After setting

up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the

Netherlands – and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch

Ministry of Transport. ‘Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more

environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing

was a real possibility.’ A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999 in Amsterdam.

However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and

payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank.

Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks

which could be opened with the chip card – the plan started with 250 bikes,

distributed over five stations.

Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside

Schimmelpennink. ‘I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced

that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with

the ones we had.’ The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. ‘After

every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says. ‘I

really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be

recognised as white bikes.’ But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to

abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. ‘That chip card was pivotal to the

system,’ Molenaar says. ‘To continue the project we would have needed to set up

another system, but the business partner had lost interest.’

Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but – characteristically – not for long. In 2002 he

got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up

his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. ‘That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a

system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the

history of bike-sharing.’ The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-

sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all

over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s

wonderful that this happened,’ he says. ‘But financially I didn’t really benefit from it,

because I never filed for a patent.’

In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen,

it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world – but the city

never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because

everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see

that this changes Amsterdam’s need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel

on the underground don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional

transport to reach their final destination.’ Although he thinks it is strange that a city

like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-sharing scheme, he is optimistic

about the future. ‘In the ‘60s we didn’t stand a chance because people were prepared

to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed.

Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.’

NB You may use any letter more than once.

a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme

an explanation of why a proposed bike-sharing scheme was turned down

a reference to a person being unable to profit their work

an explanation of the potential savings a bike-sharing scheme would bring

a reference to the problems a bike-sharing scheme was intended to solve

Choose letters, TWO A-E

Write the correct letters in boxes and on your answer sheet.19 20

Which of the following statements are made in the text about the Amsterdam TWO

bike-sharing scheme of 1999?

A It was initially opposed by a government department.

B It failed when a partner in the scheme withdrew support.

C It aimed to be more successful than the Copenhagen scheme.

D It was made possible by a change in people’s attitudes.

E It attracted interest from a range of bike designers.

Which of the following statements are made in the text about Amsterdam TWO

today?

A The majority of residents would like to prevent all cars from entering the city.

B There is little likelihood of the city having another bike-sharing scheme.

C More trips in the city are made by bike than by any other form of transport.

D A bike-sharing scheme would benefit residents who use public transport.

E The city has a reputation as a place that welcomes cyclists.

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The first urban bike-sharing scheme

The first bike-sharing scheme was the idea of the Dutch group Provo. The people

who belonged to this group were ……………………….. They were concerned 23

about damage to the environment and about ………………………….., and 24

believed that the bike-sharing scheme would draw attention to these issues. As well

as painting some bikes white, they handed out …………………….. that 25

condemned the use of cars.

However, the scheme was not a great success: almost as quickly as Provo left the

bikes around the city, the ………………………. Took them away. According to 26

Schimmelpennink, the scheme was intended to be symbolic. The idea was to get

people thinking about the issues.

Motivational factors and the hospitality industry

A critical ingredient in the success of hotels is developing and maintaining superior

performance from their employees. How is that accomplished? What Human

Resource Management (HRM) practices should organizations invest in to acquire

and retain great employees?

Some hotels aim to provide superior working conditions for their employees. The idea

originated from workplaces – usually in the non-service sector – that emphasized fun

and enjoyment as part of work-life balance. By contrast, the service sector, and more

specifically hotels, has traditionally not extended these practices to address basic

employee needs, such as good working conditions.

Pfeffer (1994) emphasizes that in order to succeed in a global business environment,

organizations must make investment in Human Resource Management (HRM) to

allow them to acquire employees who possess better skills and capabilities than their

competitors. This investment will be to their competitive advantage. Despite this

recognition of the importance of employee development, the hospitality industry has

historically been dominated by underdeveloped HR practices (Lucas, 2002).

Lucas also points out that ‘the substance of HRM practices does not appear to be

designed to foster constructive relations with employees or to represent a managerial

approach that enables developing and drawing out the full potential of people, even

though employees may be broadly satisfied with many aspects of their work’ (Lucas,

2002). In addition, or maybe as a result, high employee turnover has been a

recurring problem throughout the hospitality industry. Among the many cited reasons

are low compensation, inadequate benefits, poor working conditions and

compromised employee morale and attitudes (Maroudas et al., 2008).

Ng and Sorensen (2008) demonstrated that when managers provide recognition to

employees, motivate employees to work together, and remove obstacles preventing

effective performance, employees feel more obligated to stay with the company. This

was succinctly summarized by Michel et al. (2013): ‘[P]roviding support to employees

gives them the confidence to perform their jobs better and the motivation to stay with

the organization.’ Hospitality organizations can therefore enhance employee

motivation and retention through the development and improvement of their working

conditions. These conditions are inherently linked to the working environment.

While it seems likely that employees’ reactions to their job characteristics could be

affected by a predisposition to view their work environment negatively, no evidence

exists to support this hypothesis (Spector et al., 2000). However, given the

opportunity, many people will find something to complain about in relation to their

workplace (Poulston, 2009). There is a strong link between the perceptions of

employees and particular factors of their work environment that are separate from the

work itself, including company policies, salary and vacations.

Such conditions are particularly troubling for the luxury hotel market, where high-

quality service, requiring a sophisticated approach to HRM, is recognized as a critical

source of competitive advantage (Maroudas et al., 2008). In a real sense, the

services of hotel employees represent their industry (Schneider and Bowen, 1993).

This representation has commonly been limited to guest experiences. This suggests

that there has been a dichotomy between the guest environment provided in luxury

hotels and the working conditions of their employees.

It is therefore essential for hotel management to develop HRM practices that enable

them to inspire and retain competent employees. This requires an understanding of

what motivates employees at different levels of management and different stages of

their careers (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). This implies that it is beneficial for hotel

managers to understand what practices are most favorable to increase employee

satisfaction and retention.

Herzberg (1966) proposes that people have two major types of needs, the first being

extrinsic motivation factors relating to the context in which work is performed, rather

than the work itself. These include working conditions and job security. When these

factors are unfavorable, job dissatisfaction may result. Significantly, though, just

fulfilling these needs does not result in satisfaction, but only in the reduction of

dissatisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008).

Employees also have intrinsic motivation needs or motivators, which include such

factors as achievement and recognition. Unlike extrinsic factors, motivator factors

may ideally result in job satisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008). Herzberg’s (1966)

theory discusses the need for a ‘balance’ of these two types of needs.

The impact of fun as a motivating factor at work has also been explored. For

example, Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) conducted a study focusing on staff from

a chain of themed restaurants in the United States. It was found that fun activities

had a favorable impact on performance and manager support for fun had a favorable

impact in reducing turnover. Their findings support the view that fun may indeed have

a beneficial effect, but the framing of that fun must be carefully aligned with both

organizational goals and employee characteristics. ‘Managers must learn how to

achieve the delicate balance of allowing employees the freedom to enjoy themselves

at work while simultaneously high levels of performance’ (Tews et al., 2013).

Deery (2008) has recommended several actions that can be adopted at the

organizational level to retain good staff as well as assist in balancing work and family

life. Those particularly appropriate to the hospitality industry include allowing

adequate breaks during the working day, staff functions that involve families, and

providing health and well-being opportunities.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-F 27-31

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of Researchers

A Pfeffer

B Lucas

C Maroudas et al.

D Ng and Sorensen

E Enz and Siguaw

F Deery

Hotel managers need to know what would encourage good staff to remain.

The actions of managers may make staff feel they shouldn’t move to a different

employer.

Little is done in the hospitality industry to help workers improve their skills.

Staff are less likely to change jobs if cooperation is encouraged.

Dissatisfaction with pay is not the only reason why hospitality workers change jobs.

One reason for high staff turnover in the hospitality industry is poor morale.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Research has shown that staff have a tendency to dislike their workplace.

YES

NOT GIVEN

An improvement in working conditions and job security makes staff satisfied with their

jobs.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Staff should be allowed to choose when they take breaks during the working day.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Fun at work

Tews, Michel and Stafford carried out research on staff in an American chain

of ……………………… . They discovered that activities designed for staff to have 36

fun improved their ……………………… , and that management involvement led to 37

lower staff ………………………….. . They also found that the activities needed to 38

fit with both the company’s ………………………….. and 39

the …………………………. Of the staff. A balance was required between a degree40

of freedom and maintaining work standards.

Cam IELTS 14 reading test 2

Alexander Henderson (1831-1913)

Born in Scotland, Henderson emigrated to Canada in 1855 and become a well-

known landscape photographer

Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful

merchant. His grandfather, also called Alexander, had founded the family business,

and later became the first chairman of the National Bank of Scotland. The family had

extensive landholding in Scotland. Besides its residence in Edinburgh, it owned

Press Estate, 650 acres of farmland about 35 miles southeast of the city. The family

often stayed at Press Castle, the large mansion on the northern edge of the property,

and Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area, playing on the beach near

Eyemouth or fishing in the streams nearby.

Even after he went to school at Murcheston Academy on the outskirts of Edinburgh,

Henderson returned to Press at weekends. In 1849 he began a three-year

apprenticeship to become an accountant. Although he never liked the prospect of a

business career, he stayed with it to please his family. In October 1855, however, he

emigrated to Canada with his wife Agnes Elder Robertson and they settled in

Montreal.

Henderson learned photography in Montreal around the year 1857 and quickly took it

up as a serious amateur. He became a personal friend and colleague of the Scottish

– Canadian photographer William Notman. The two men made a photographic

excursion to Niagara Falls in 1860 and they cooperated on experiments with

magnesium flares as a source of artificial light in 1865. They belonged to the same

societies and were among the founding members of the Art Association of Montreal.

Henderson acted as chairman of the association’s first meeting, which was held in

Notman’s studio on 11 January 1860.

In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different. While

Notman’s landscapes were noted for their bold realism, Henderson for the first 20

years of his career produced romantic images, showing the strong influence of the

British landscape tradition. His artistic and technical progress was rapid and in 1865

he published his first major collection of landscape photographs. The publication had

limited circulation (only seven copies have ever been found), and was

called Canadian Views and Studies. The contents of each copy vary significantly and

have proved a useful source for evaluating Henderson’s early work.

In 1866, he gave up his business to open a photographic studio, advertising himself

as a portrait and landscape photographer. From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to

specialize in landscape photography and other views. His numerous photographs of

city life revealed in street scenes, houses, and markets are alive with human activity,

and although his favourite subject was landscape he usually composed his scenes

around such human pursuits as farming the land, cutting ice on a river, or sailing

down a woodland stream. There was sufficient demand for these types of scenes and

others he took depicting the lumber trade, steamboats and waterfalls to enable him to

make a living. There was little competing hobby or amateur photography before the

late 1880s because of the time-consuming techniques involved and the weight of

equipment. People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts, and

catering to this market, Henderson had stock photographs on display at his studio for

mounting, framing, or inclusion in albums.

Henderson frequently exhibited his photographs in Montreal and abroad, in London,

Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia. He met with greater success in

1877 and 1878 in New York when he won first prizes in the exhibition held by E and

H T Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype process. In 1878

his work won second prize at the world exhibition in Paris.

In the 1890s and 1880s Henderson travelled widely throughout Quebec and Ontario,

in Canada, documenting the major cities of the two provinces and many of the

villages in Quebec. He was especially fond of the wilderness and often travelled by

canoe on the Blanche, du Lièvre, and other noted eastern rivers. He went on several

occasions to the Maritimes and in 1872 he sailed by yacht along the lower north

shore of the St Lawrence River. That same year, while in the lower St Lawrence River

region, he took some photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway.

This undertaking led in 1875 to a commission from the railway to record the principal

structures along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax.

Commissions from other railways followed. In 1876 he photographed bridges on the

Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. In

1885 he went west along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as far as Rogers Pass

in British Columbia, where he took photographs of the mountains and the progress of

construction.

In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a

photographic department which he was to set up and administer. His duties included

spending four months in the field each year. That summer he made his second trip

west, photographing extensively along the railway line as far as Victoria. He

continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography.

When Henderson died in 1913, his huge collection of glass negatives was stored in

the basement of his house. Today collections of his work are held at the National

Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the McCord Museum of Canadian History,

Montreal.

Henderson rarely visited the area around Press estate when he was younger.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Henderson pursued a business career because it was what his family wanted.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Henderson and Notman were surprised by the results of their 1865 experiment.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There were many similarities between Henderson’s early landscapes and those of

Notman.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The studio that Henderson opened in 1866 was close to his home.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Henderson gave up portraiture so that he could focus on taking photographs of

scenery.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

When Henderson began work for the Intercolonial Railway, the Montreal to Halifax

line had been finished.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Henderson’s last work as a photographer was with the Canadian Pacific Railway.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Alexander Henderson

Early life

• was born in Scotland in 1831 – father was a …………………………9

• trained as an accountant, emigrated to Canada in 1855

Start of a photographic career

• opened up a photographic studio in 1866

• took photos of city life, but preferred landscape photography

• people bought Henderson’s photos because photography took up considerable

time and the ……………………… was heavy10

• the photographs Henderson sold were 11 …………………………… or souvenirs

Travelling as a professional photographer

• travelled widely in Quebec and Ontario in 1870s and 1880s

• took many trips along eastern rivers in a 12…………………………..

• worked for Canadian railways between 1875 and 1897

• worked for CPR in 1885 and photographed the …………………………… and 13

the railway at Rogers Pass

Back to the future of skyscraper design

Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public

buildings can be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th

and early-20th centuries

The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the

culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by

Short and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences

at the University of Cambridge.

‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can

solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures

continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on

keeping our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’

Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public

buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via

the ‘life support’ system of vast air conditioning units.

Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and

cooling in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction

of air conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by

their inventors.

Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be

sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is

spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of

electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world

is catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned

skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our

requirements.

Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating

buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of

ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs

of John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of

Baltimore (1873-1889).

‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put

pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing

in the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other

patients safe from harm.

—————-

* pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease

‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes

an hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled

operating theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.

Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for

certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well

in today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’

Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been

completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera

houses, and other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given

over to ensuring everyone got fresh air.

Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven

by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was

thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas

were feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were

used to explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the

cholera outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs,

was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent

death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.

While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years

advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake.

Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air

conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three

decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what

happens.

‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised

to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What

is surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’

Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De

Montfort University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the

entire building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the

two largest auditoria, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning

building uses a fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.

Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a

liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price

rises come to pass as expected.

He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment

can be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid

buildings in the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation

assisted by back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched

off more than half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn.

Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future.

Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet. A-I 14-18

why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century

a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige

a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern

standards

how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building

an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards

Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the

architectural ……………………… of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation.19

He calculated that ……………………….. in the air coming from patients suffering 20

from ……………………… would not have harmed other patients. He also found 21

that the air in …………………………. in hospitals could change as often as in a 22

modern operating theatre. He suggests that energy use could be reduced by locating

more patients in ………………………. areas.23

A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand

from the ………………………….. for protection against bad air, known 24

as …………………………… These were blamed for the spread of disease for 25

hundreds of years, including epidemics of …………………………… in London and 26

Paris in the middle of the 19th century.

Why companies should welcome disorder

Organisation is big business. Whether it is of our lives – all those inboxes and

calendars – or how companies are structured, a multi-billion dollar industry helps to

meet this need.

We have more strategies for time management, project management and self-

organisation than at any other time in human history. We are told that we ought to

organize our company, our home life, our week, our day and even our sleep, all as a

means to becoming more productive. Every week, countless seminars and

workshops take place around the world to tell a paying public that they ought to

structure their lives in order to achieve this.

This rhetoric has also crept into the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs,

much to the delight of self-proclaimed perfectionists with the need to get everything

right. The number of business schools and graduates has massively increased over

the past 50 years, essentially teaching people how to organise well.

Ironically, however, the number of business that fail has also steadily increased.

Work-related stress has increased. A large proportion of workers from all

demographics claim to be dissatisfied with the way their work is structured and the

way they are managed.

This begs the question: what has gone wrong? Why is it that on paper the drive for

organisation seems a sure shot for increasing productivity, but in reality falls well

short of what is expected?

This has been a problem for a while now. Frederick Taylor was one of the forefathers

of scientific management. Writing in the first half of the 20th century, he designed a

number of principles to improve the efficiency of the work process, which have since

become widespread in modern companies. So the approach has been around for a

while.

New research suggests that this obsession with efficiency is misguided. The problem

is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organise our

work; it’s the basic assumptions we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the

assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has

also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organizational productivity.

The result is that businesses and people spend time and money organising

themselves for the sake of organising, rather than actually looking at the end goal

and usefulness of such an effort.

What’s more, recent studies show that order actually has diminishing returns. Order

does increase productivity to a certain extent, but eventually the usefulness of the

process of organisation, and the benefit it yields, reduce until the point where any

further increase in order reduces productivity. Some argue that in a business, if the

cost of formally structuring something outweighs the benefit of doing it, then that

thing ought not to be formally structured. Instead, the resources involved can be

better used elsewhere.

In fact, research shows that, when innovating, the best approach is to create an

environment devoid of structure and hierarchy and enable everyone involved to

engage as one organic group. These environments can lead to new solutions that,

under conventionally structured environments (filled with bottlenecks in term of

information flow, power structures, rules, and routines) would never be reached.

In recent times companies have slowly started to embrace this disorganisation. Many

of them embrace it in terms of perception (embracing the idea of disorder, as

opposed to fearing it) and in terms of process (putting mechanisms in place to reduce

structure).

For example, Oticon, a large Danish manufacturer of hearing aids, used what it

called a ‘spaghetti’ structure in order to reduce the organisation’s rigid hierarchies.

This involved scrapping formal job titles and giving staff huge amounts of ownership

over their own time and projects. This approach proved to be highly successful

initially, with clear improvements in worker productivity in all facets of the business.

In similar fashion, the former chairman of General Electric embraced disorganisation,

putting forward the idea of the ‘boundaryless’ organisation. Again, it involves breaking

down the barriers between different parts of a company and encouraging virtual

collaboration and flexible working. Google and a number of other tech companies

have embraced (at least in part) these kinds of flexible structures, facilitated by

technology and strong company values which glue people together.

A word of warning to others thinking of jumping on this bandwagon: the evidence so

far suggests disorder, much like order, also seems to have diminishing utility, and can

also have detrimental effects on performance if overused. Like order, disorder should

be embraced only so far as it is useful. But we should not fear it – nor venerate one

over the other. This research also shows that we should continually question whether

or not our existing assumptions work.

Reading Passage 3 has eight sections, A-H

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, , in boxes on your answer sheet.i-ix 27-34

List of Headkings

i Complaints about the impact of a certain approach

ii Fundamental beliefs that are in fact incorrect

iii Early recommendations concerning business activities

iv Organisations that put a new approach into practice

v Companies that have suffered from changing their approach

vi What people are increasingly expected to do

vii How to achieve outcomes that are currently impossible

viii Neither approach guarantees continuous improvement

ix Evidence that a certain approach can have more disadvantages

than advantages

Section A

Section B

Section C

Section D

Section E

Section F

Section G

Section H

Complete the sentences below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes on your answer sheet.35-37

Numerous training sessions are aimed at people who feel they are not

………………………. enough.

Being organised appeals to people who regard themselves as

……………………………

Many people feel ……………………….. with aspects of their work.

Both businesses and people aim at order without really considering its value.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Innovation is most successful if the people involved have distinct roles.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Google was inspired to adopt flexibility by the success of General Electric.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Cam IELTS 14 reading test 3

The concept of intelligence

Looked at in one way, everyone knows what intelligence is; looked at in another way,

no one does. In other words, people all have unconscious notions – known as

‘implicit theories’ – of intelligence, but no one knows for certain what it actually is.

This chapter addresses how people conceptualize intelligence, whatever it may

actually be.

But why should we even care what people think intelligence is, as opposed only to

valuing whatever it actually is? There are at least four reasons people’s conceptions

of intelligence matter.

First, implicit theories of intelligence drive the way in which people perceive and

evaluate their own intelligence and that of others. To better understand the judgments

people make about their own and others’ abilities, it is useful to learn about people’s

implicit theories. For example, parents’ implicit theories of their children’s language

development will determine at what ages they will be willing to make various

corrections in their children’s speech. More generally, parents’ implicit theories of

intelligence will determine at what ages they believe their children are ready to

perform various cognitive tasks. Job interviewers will make hiring decisions on the

basis of their implicit theories of intelligence. People will decide who to be friends with

on the basis of such theories. In sum, knowledge about implicit theories of

intelligence is important because this knowledge is so often used by people to make

judgments in the course of their everyday lives.

Second, the implicit theories of scientific investigators ultimately give rise to their

explicit theories. Thus it is useful to find out what these implicit theories are. Implicit

theories provide a framework that is useful in defining the general scope of a

phenomenon – especially a not-well-understood phenomenon. These implicit

theories can suggest what aspects of the phenomenon have been more or less

attended to in previous investigations.

Third, implicit theories can be useful when an investigator suspects that existing

explicit theories are wrong or misleading. If an investigation of implicit theories

reveals little correspondence between the extant implicit and explicit theories, the

implicit theories may be wrong. But the possibility also needs to be taken into

account that the explicit theories are wrong and in need of correction or

supplementation. For example, some implicit theories of intelligence suggest the

need for expansion of some of our explicit theories of the construct.

Finally, understanding implicit theories of intelligence can help elucidate

developmental and cross-cultural differences. As mentioned earlier, people have

expectations for intellectual performances that differ for children of different ages.

How these expectations differ is in part a function of culture. For example,

expectations for children who participate in Western-style schooling are almost

certain to be different from those for children who do not participate in such

schooling.

I have suggested that there are three major implicit theories of how intelligence

relates to society as a whole (Sternberg, 1997). These might be called Hamiltonian,

Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian. These views are not based strictly, but rather, loosely,

on the philosophies of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson,

three great statesmen in the history of the United States.

The Hamiltonian view, which is similar to the Platonic view, is that people are born

with different levels of intelligence and that those who are less intelligent need the

good offices of the more intelligent to keep them in line, whether they are called

government officials or, in Plato’s term, philosopher-kings. Herrnstein and Murray

(1994) seem to have shared this belief when they wrote about the emergence of a

cognitive (high-IQ) elite, which eventually would have to take responsibility for the

largely irresponsible masses of non-elite (low-IQ) people who cannot take care of

themselves. Left to themselves, the unintelligent would create, as they always have

created, a kind of chaos.

The Jeffersonian view is that people should have equal opportunities, but they do not

necessarily avail themselves equally of these opportunities and are not necessarily

equally rewarded for their accomplishments. People are rewarded for what they

accomplish, if given equal opportunity. Low achievers are not rewarded to the same

extent as high achievers. In the Jeffersonian view, the goal of education is not to

favor or foster an elite, as in the Hamiltonian tradition, but rather to allow children the

opportunities to make full use of the skills they have. My own views are similar to

these (Sternberg, 1997).

The Jacksonian view is that all people are equal, not only as human beings but in

terms of their competencies – that one person would serve as well as another in

government or on a jury or in almost any position of responsibility. In this view of

democracy, people are essentially intersubstitutable except for specialized skills, all

of which can be learned. In this view, we do not need or want any institutions that

might lead to favoring one group over another.

Implicit theories of intelligence and of the relationship of intelligence to society

perhaps need to be considered more carefully than they have been because they

often serve as underlying presuppositions for explicit theories and even experimental

designs that are then taken as scientific contributions. Until scholars are able to

discuss their implicit theories and thus their assumptions, they are likely to miss the

point of what others are saying when discussing their explicit theories and their data

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-J 1-3

information about how non-scientists’ assumptions about intelligence influence their

behavior towards others

a reference to lack of clarity over the definition of intelligence

the point that a researcher’s implicit and explicit theories may be very different

Slow language development in children is likely to prove disappointing to their

parents.

YES

NOT GIVEN

People’s expectations of what children should gain from education are universal.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Scholars may discuss theories without fully understanding each other.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Write the correct letter, , or , in boxes on your answer sheet.A B C 7-13

NB You may use any letter more than once.

List of Theories

A Hamiltonian

B Jeffersonian

C Jacksonian

It is desirable for the same possibilities to be open to everyone.

No section of society should have preferential treatment at the expense of another.

People should only gain benefits on the basis of what they actually achieve.

Variation in intelligence begins at birth.

The more intelligent people should be in positions of power.

Everyone can develop the same abilities.

People of low intelligence are likely to lead uncontrolled lives.

Saving bugs to find new drugs

Zoologist Ross Piper looks at the potential of insects in pharmaceutical research

More drugs than you might think are derived from, or inspired by, compounds found

in living things. Looking to nature for the soothing and curing of our ailments is

nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. You only have to

look at other primates – such as the capuchin monkeys who rub themselves with

toxin-oozing millipedes to deter mosquitoes, or the chimpanzees who use noxious

forest plants to rid themselves of intestinal parasites – to realise that our ancient

ancestors too probably had a basic grasp of medicine.

Pharmaceutical science and chemistry built on these ancient foundations and

perfected the extraction, characterization, modification and testing of these natural

products. Then, for a while, modern pharmaceutical science moved its focus away

from nature and into the laboratory, designing chemical compounds from scratch.

The main cause of this shift is that although there are plenty of promising chemical

compounds in nature, finding them is far from easy. Securing sufficient numbers of

the organism in question, isolating and characterizing the compounds of interest, and

producing large quantities of these compounds are all significant hurdles.

Laboratory-based drug discovery has achieved varying levels of success, something

which has now prompted the development of new approaches focusing once again

on natural products. With the ability to mine genomes for useful compounds, it is now

evident that we have barely scratched the surface of nature’s molecular diversity.

This realization, together with several looming health crises, such as antibiotic

resistance, has put bioprospecting – the search for useful compounds in nature –

firmly back on the map.

Insects are the undisputed masters of the terrestrial domain, where they occupy

every possible niche. Consequently, they have a bewildering array of interactions

with other organisms, something which has driven the evolution of an enormous

range of very interesting compounds for defensive and offensive purposes. Their

remarkable diversity exceeds that of every other group of animals on the planet

combined. Yet even though insects are far and away the most diverse animals in

existence, their potential as sources of therapeutic compounds is yet to be realised.

From the tiny proportion of insects that have been investigated, several promising

compounds have been identified. For example, alloferon, an antimicrobial compound

produced by blow fly larvae, is used as an antiviral and antitumor agent in South

Korea and Russia. The larvae of a few other insect species are being investigated for

the potent antimicrobial compounds they produce. Meanwhile, a compound from the

venom of the wasp has potential in cancer treatment.Polybia paulista

Why is it that insects have received relatively little attention in bioprospecting? Firstly,

there are so many insects that, without some manner of targeted approach,

investigating this huge variety of species is a daunting task. Secondly, insects are

generally very small, and the glands inside them that secrete potentially useful

compounds are smaller still. This can make it difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of

the compound for subsequent testing. Thirdly, although we consider insects to be

everywhere, the reality of this ubiquity is vast numbers of a few extremely common

species. Many insect species are infrequently encountered and very difficult to rear in

captivity, which, again, can leave us with insufficient material to work with.

My colleagues and I at Aberystwyth University in the UK have developed an

approach in which we use our knowledge of ecology as a guide to target our efforts.

The creatures that particularly interest us are the many insects that secrete powerful

poison for subduing prey and keeping it fresh for future consumption. There are even

more insects that are masters of exploiting filthy habitats, such as faeces and

carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by thousands of micro-organisms.

These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing with pathogenic

bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many

compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics.

Although natural history knowledge points us in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the

problems associated with obtaining useful compounds from insects. Fortunately, it is

now possible to snip out the stretches of the insect’s DNA that carry the codes for the

interesting compounds and insert them into cell lines that allow larger quantities to be

produced. And although the road from isolating and characterizing compounds with

desirable qualities to developing a commercial product is very long and full of pitfalls,

the variety of successful animal-derived pharmaceuticals on the market

demonstrates there is a precedent here that is worth exploring.

With every bit of wilderness that disappears, we deprive ourselves of potential

medicines. As much as I’d love to help develop a groundbreaking insect-derived

medicine, my main motivation for looking at insects in this way is conservation. I

sincerely believe that all species, however small and seemingly insignificant, have a

right to exist for their own sake. If we can shine a light on the darker recesses of

nature’s medicine cabinet, exploring the useful chemistry of the most diverse animals

on the planet, I believe we can make people think differently about the value of

nature.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-I 14-20

mention of factors driving a renewed interest in natural medicinal compounds.

how recent technological advances have made insect research easier

examples of animals which use medicinal substances from nature

reasons why it is challenging to use insects in drug research

reference to how interest in drug research may benefit wildlife

a reason why nature-based medicines fell out of favour for a period

an example of an insect-derived medicine in use at the moment

Which of the following make insects interesting for drug research?TWO

A the huge number of individual insects in the world

B the variety of substances insects have developed to protect themselves

C the potential to extract and make use of insects’ genetic codes

D the similarities between different species of insect

E the manageable size of most insects

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Research at Aberystwyth University

Ross Piper and fellow zoologists at Aberystwyth University are using their expertise

in ………………………… when undertaking bioprospecting with insects. They are 23

especially interested in the compounds that insects produce to overpower and

preserve their …………………………. They are also interested in compounds 24

which insects use to protect themselves from pathogenic bacteria and fungi found in

their ………………………… Piper hopes that these substances will be useful in the25

development of drugs such as 26……………………………..

The power of play

Virtually every child, the world over, plays. The drive to play is so intense that children

will do so in any circumstances, for instance when they have no real toys, or when

parents do not actively encourage the behavior. In the eyes of a young child, running,

pretending, and building are fun. Researchers and educators know that these playful

activities benefit the development of the whole child across social, cognitive,

physical, and emotional domains. Indeed, play is such an instrumental component to

healthy child development that the United Nation High Commission on Human Rights

(1989) recognized play as a fundamental right of every child.

Yet, while experts continue to expound a powerful argument for the importance of

play in children’s lives, the actual time children spend playing continues to decrease.

Today, children play eight hours less each week than their counterparts did two

decades ago (Elkind 2008). Under pressure of rising academic standards, play is

being replaced by test preparation in kindergartens and grade schools, and parents

who aim to give their preschoolers a leg up are led to believe that flashcards and

educational ‘toys’ are the path to success. Our society has created a false dichotomy

between play and learning.

Through play, children learn to regulate their behavior, lay the foundations for later

learning in science and mathematics, figure out the complex negotiations of social

relationships, build a repertoire of creative problem-solving skills, and so much more.

There is also an important role for adults in guiding children through playful learning

opportunities.

Full consensus on a formal definition of play continues to elude the researchers and

theorists who study it. Definitions range from discrete descriptions of various types of

play such as physical, construction, language, or symbolic play (Miler & Almon 2009),

to lists of broad criteria, based on observations and attitudes, that are meant to

capture the essence of all play behaviors (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983).

A majority of the contemporary definitions of play focus on several key criteria. The

founder of the National Institute for Play, Stuart Brown, has described play as

‘anything that spontaneously is done for its own sake’. More specifically, he says it

‘appears purposeless, produces pleasure and joy, [and] leads one to the next stage

of mastery’ (as quoted in Tippett 2008). Similarly, Miller and Almon (2009) say that

play includes ‘activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from

intrinsic motivation’. Often, play is defined along a continuum as more or less playful

using the following set of behavioral and dispositional criteria (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983).

Play is pleasurable: Children must enjoy the activity or it is not play. It is intrinsically

motivated: Children engage in play simply for the satisfaction the behavior itself

brings. It has no extrinsically motivated function or goal. Play is process oriented:

When children play, the means are more important than the ends. It is freely chosen,

spontaneous and voluntary. If a child is pressured, they will likely not think of the

activity as play. Play is actively engaged: Players must be physically and/or mentally

involved in the activity. Play is non-literal. It involves make-believe.

According to this view, children’s playful behaviors can range in degree from 0% to

100% playful. Rubin and colleagues did not assign greater weight to any one

dimension in determining playfulness; however, other researchers have suggested

that process orientation and a lack of obvious functional purpose may be the most

important aspects of play (e.g. Pellegrini 2009).

From the perspective of a continuum, play can thus blend with other motives and

attitudes that are less playful, such as work. Unlike play, work is typically not viewed

as enjoyable and it is extrinsically motivated (i.e. it is goal oriented). Researcher Joan

Goodman (1994) suggested that hybrid forms of work and play are not a detriment to

learning; rather, they can provide optimal contexts for learning. For example, a child

may be engaged in a difficult, goal-directed activity set up by their teacher, but they

may still be actively engaged and intrinsically motivated. At this mid-point between

play and work, the child’s motivation, coupled with guidance from an adult, can create

robust opportunities for playful learning.

Critically, recent research supports the idea that adults can facilitate children’s

learning while maintaining a playful approach in interactions known as ‘guided play’

(Fisher et al. 2011). The adult’s role in play varies as a function of their educational

goals and the child’s developmental level (Hirsch-Pasek et al. 2009).

Guided play takes two forms. At a very basic level, adults can enrich the child’s

environment by providing objects or experiences that promote aspects of a

curriculum. In the more direct form of guided play, parents or other adults can support

children’s play by joining in the fun as a co-player, raising thoughtful questions,

commenting on children’s discoveries, or encouraging further exploration or new

facets to the child’s activity. Although playful learning can be somewhat structured, it

must also be child-centered (Nicolopolou et al. 2006). Play should stem from the

child’s own desire.

Both free and guided play are essential elements in a child-centered approach to

playful learning. Intrinsically motivated free play provides the child with true

autonomy, while guided play is an avenue through which parents and educators can

provide more targeted learning experiences. In either case, play should be actively

engaged, it should be predominantly child-directed, and it must be fun.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-G 27-31

List of Researchers

A Elkind

B Miller & Almon

C Rubin et al.

D Stuart Brown

E Pellegrini

F Joan Goodman

G Hirsch-Pasek et al.

Play can be divided into a number of separate categories.

Adults’ intended goals affect how they play with children.

Combining work with play may be the best way for children to learn.

Certain elements of play are more significant than others.

Activities can be classified on a scale of playfulness.

Children need toys in order to play.

YES

NOT GIVEN

It is a mistake to treat play and learning as separate types of activities.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Play helps children to develop their artistic talents.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Researchers have agreed on a definition of play.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Work and play differ in terms of whether or not they have a target.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Guided play

In the simplest form of guided play, an adult contributes to the environment in which

the child is playing. Alternatively, an adult can play with a child and develop the play,

for instance by …………………….. the child to investigate different aspects of their37

game. Adults can help children to learn through play, and may make the activity

rather structured, but it should still be based on the child’s …………………………. 38

to play.

Play without the intervention of adults gives children real ………………………….; 39

with adults, play can be ………………………… at particular goals. However, all 40

forms of play should be an opportunity for children to have fun.

Cam IELTS 14 reading test 4

The secret of staying young

Pheidole dentata, a native ant of the south-eastern U.S., isn’t immortal. But scientists

have found that it doesn’t seem to show any signs of aging. Old worker ants can do

everything just as well as the youngsters, and their brains appear just as sharp. ‘We

get a picture that these ants really don’t decline,’ says Ysabel Giraldo, who studies

the ants for her doctoral thesis at Boston University.

Such age-defying feats are rare in the animal kingdom. Naked mole rats can live for

almost 30 years and stay fit for nearly their entire lives. They can still reproduce even

when old, and they never get cancer. But the vast majority of animals deteriorate with

age just like people do. Like the naked mole rat, ants are social creatures that usually

live in highly organised colonies. ‘It’s this social complexity that makes P.

dentata useful for studying aging in people,’ says Giraldo, now at the California

Institute of Technology. Humans are also highly social, a trait that has been

connected to healthier aging. By contrast, most animal studies of aging use mice,

worms or fruit flies, which all lead much more isolated lives.

In the lab, P. dentata worker ants typically live for around 140 days. Giraldo focused

on ants at four age ranges: 20 to 22 days, 45 to 47 days, 95 to 97 days and 120 to

122 days. Unlike all previous studies, which only estimated how old the ants were,

her work tracked the ants from the time the pupae became adults, so she knew their

exact ages. Then she put them through a range of tests.

Giraldo watched how well the ants took care of the young of the colony, recording

how often each ant attended to, carried and fed them. She compared how well 20-

day-old and 95-day-old ants followed the telltale scent that the insects usually leave

to mark a trail to food. She tested how ants responded to light and also measured

how active they were by counting how often ants in a small dish walked across a line.

And she experimented with how ants react to live prey: a tethered fruit fly. Giraldo

expected the older ants to perform poorly in all these tasks. But the elderly insects

were all good caretakers and trail-followers – the 95-day-old ants could track the

scent even longer than their younger counterparts. They all responded do light well,

and the older ants were more active. And when it came to reacting to prey, the older

ants attacked the poor fruit fly just as aggressively as the young ones did, flaring their

mandibles or pulling at the fly’s legs.

Then Giraldo compared the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-ole ants, identifying any

cells that were close to death. She saw no major differences with age, nor was there

any difference in the location of the dying cells, showing that age didn’t seem to affect

specific brain functions. Ants and other insects have structures in their brains called

mushroom bodies, which are important for processing information, learning and

memory. She also wanted to see if aging affects the density of synaptic complexes

within these structures – regions where neurons come together. Again, the answer

was no. what was more, the old ants didn’t experience any drop in the levels of either

serotonin or dopamine – brain chemicals whose decline often coincides with aging. In

humans, for example, a decrease in serotonin has been linked to Alzheimer’s

disease.

‘This is the first time anyone has looked at both behavioral and neural changes in

these ants so thoroughly,’ says Giraldo, who recently published the findings in

the . Scientists have looked at some similar Proceeding of the Royal Society B

aspects in bees, but the results of recent bee studies were mixed – some studies

showed age-related declines, which biologists call senescence, and others didn’t.

‘For now, the study raises more questions than it answers,’ Giraldo says, ‘including

how P. dentata stays in such good shape.’

Also, if the ants don’t deteriorate with age, why do they die at all? Out in the wild, the

ants probably don’t live for a full 140 days thanks to predators, disease and just being

in an environment that’s much harsher than the comforts of the lab. ‘The lucky ants

that do live into old age may suffer a steep decline just before dying,’ Giraldo says,

but she can’t say for sure because her study wasn’t designed to follow an ant’s final

moments.

‘It will be important to extend these findings to other species of social insects,’ says

Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign. This ant might be unique, or it might represent a broader pattern among

other social bugs with possible clues to the science of aging in larger animals. Either

way, it seems that for these ants, age really doesn’t matter.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Ysabel Giraldo’s research

Focused on a total of ………………………….. different age groups of ants, 1

analyzing

Behaviour:

• how well ants looked after their …………………………..2

• their ability to locate ………………………… using a scent trail3

• the effect that ………………………….. had on them4

• how …………………………. They attacked prey5

Brains:

• comparison between age and the …………………………… of dying cells in the 6

brains of ants

• condition of synaptic complexes (areas in which …………………………… meet) 7

in the brain’s ‘mushroom bodies’

• level of two ………………………….. in the brain associated with ageing8

Pheidole dentata ants are the only known animals which remain active for almost

their whole lives.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Ysabel Giraldo was the first person to study Pheidole dentata ants using precise data

about the insects’ ages.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The ants in Giraldo’s experiments behaved as she had predicted that they would.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The recent studies of bees used different methods of measuring age-related decline.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Pheidole dentata ants kept in laboratory conditions tend to live longer lives.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Why zoos are good

Scientist David Hone makes the case for zoos

In my view, it is perfectly possible for many species of animals living in zoos or

wildlife parks to have a quality of life as high as, or higher than, in the wild. Animals in

good zoos get a varied and high-quality diet with all the supplements required, and

any illnesses they might have will be treated. Their movement might be somewhat

restricted, but they have a safe environment in which to live, and they are spared

bullying and social ostracism by others of their kind. They do not suffer from the

threat or stress of predators, or the irritation and pain of parasites or injuries. The

average captive animal will have a greater life expectancy compared with its wild

counterpart, and will not die of drought, of starvation or in the jaws of a predator. A lot

of very nasty things happen to truly ‘wild’ animals that simply don’t happen in good

zoos, and to view a life that is ‘free’ as one that is automatically ‘good’ is, I think, an

error. Furthermore, zoos serve several key purposes.

Firstly, zoos aid conservation. Colossal numbers of species are becoming extinct

across the world, and many more are increasingly threatened and therefore risk

extinction. Moreover, some of these collapses have been sudden, dramatic and

unexpected, or were simply discovered very late in the day. A species protected in

captivity can be bred up to provide a reservoir population against a population crash

or extinction in the wild. A good number of species only exist in captivity, with many of

these living in zoos. Still more only exist in the wild because they have been

reintroduced from zoos, or have wild populations that have been boosted by captive

bred animals. Without these efforts there would be fewer species alive today.

Although reintroduction successes are few and far between, the numbers are

increasing, and the very fact that species have been saved or reintroduced as a

result of captive breeding proves the value of such initiatives.

Zoos also provide education. Many children and adults, especially those in cities, will

never see a wild animal beyond a fox or pigeon. While it is true that television

documentaries are becoming ever more detailed and impressive, and many natural

history specimens are on display in museums, there really is nothing to compare with

seeing a living creature in the flesh, hearing it, smelling it, watching what it does and

having the time to absorb details. That alone will bring a greater understanding and

perspective to many, and hopefully give them a greater appreciation for wildlife,

conservation efforts and how they can contribute.

In addition to this, there is also the education that can take place in zoos through

signs, talks and presentations which directly communicate information to visitors

about the animals they are seeing and their place in the world. This was an area

where zoos used to be lacking, but they are now increasingly sophisticated in their

communication and outreach work. Many zoos also work directly to educate

conservation workers in other countries, or send their animal keepers abroad to

contribute their knowledge and skills to those working in zoos and reserves, thereby

helping to improve conditions and reintroductions all over the world.

Zoos also play a key role in research. If we are to save wild species and restore and

repair ecosystems we need to know about how key species live, act and react. Being

able to undertake research on animals in zoos where there is less risk and fewer

variables means real changes can be effected on wild populations. Finding out about,

for example, the oestrus cycle of an animal of its breeding rate helps us manage wild

populations. Procedures such as capturing and moving at-risk or dangerous

individuals are bolstered by knowledge gained in zoos about doses for anaesthetics,

and by experience in handling and transporting animals. This can make a real

difference to conservation efforts and to the reduction of human-animal conflicts, and

can provide a knowledge base for helping with the increasing threats of habitat

destruction and other problems.

In conclusion, considering the many ongoing global threats to the environment, it is

hard for me to see zoos as anything other than essential to the long-term survival of

numerous species. They are vital not just in terms of protecting animals, but as a

means of learning about them to aid those still in the wild, as well as educating and

informing the general population about these animals and their world so that they can

assist or at least accept the need to be more environmentally conscious. Without

them, the world would be, and would increasingly become, a much poorer place.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-F 14-17

a reference to how quickly animal species can die out

reasons why it is preferable to study animals in captivity rather than in the wild

mention of two ways of learning about animals other than visiting them in zoos

reasons why animals in zoos may by healthier than those in the wild

An animal is likely to live longer in a zoo than in the wild

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There are some species in zoos which can no longer be found in the wild.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Improvements in the quality of TV wildlife documentaries have resulted in increased

numbers of zoo visitors.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Zoos have always excelled at transmitting information about animals to the public.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Studying animals in zoos is less stressful for the animals than studying them in the

wild.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Which of the following are stated about zoo staff in the text?TWO

A Some take part in television documentaries about animals

B Some travel to overseas locations to join teams in zoos.

C Some get experience with species in the wild before taking up zoo jobs.

D Some teach people who are involved with conservation projects.

E Some specialise in caring for species which are under threat.

Which of these beliefs about zoos does the writer mention in the text?TWO

A They can help children overcome their fears of wild animals.

B They can increase public awareness of environmental issues.

C They can provide employment for a range of professional people.

D They can generate income to support wildlife conservation projects.

E They can raise animals which can later be released into the wild.

How Bad Is Ocean Garbage, Really?

Chelsea Rochman, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, has been trying

to answer a dismal question: Is everything terrible, or are things just very, very bad?

Rochman is a member of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis’s

marine-debris working group, a collection of scientists who study, among other

things, the growing problem of marine debris, also known as ocean trash. Plenty of

studies have sounded alarm bells about the state of marine debris; in a recent paper

published in the journal , Rochman and her colleagues set out to determine Ecology

how many of those perceived risks are real.

Often, Rochman says, scientists will end a paper by speculating about the broader

impacts of what they’ve found. For example, a study could show that certain seabirds

eat plastic bags, and go on to warn that whole bird populations are at risk of dying

out. ‘But the truth was that nobody had yet tested those perceived threats,’ Rochman

says. ‘There wasn’t a lot of information.’

Rochman and her colleagues examined more than a hundred papers on the impacts

of marine debris that were published through 2013. Within each paper, they asked

what threats scientists had studied – 366 perceived threats in all – and what they’d

actually found.

In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash were proven true. In the

remaining cases, the working group found the studies had weaknesses in design and

content which affected the validity of their conclusions – they lacked a control group,

for example, or used faulty statistics.

Strikingly, Rochman says, only one well-designed study failed to find the effect it was

looking for, an investigation of mussels ingesting microscopic bits. The plastic moved

from the mussels’ stomachs to their bloodstreams, scientists found, and stayed there

for weeks – but didn’t seem to stress out the shellfish.

While mussels may be fine eating trash, though, the analysis also gave a clearer

picture of the many ways that ocean debris bothersome.is

Within the studies they looked at, most of the proven threats came from plastic

debris, rather than other materials like metal or wood. Most of the dangers also

involved large pieces of debris – animals getting entangled in trash, for example, or

eating it and severely injuring themselves.

But a lot of ocean debris is ‘microplastic’, or pieces smaller than five millimeters.

These may be ingredients used in cosmetics and toiletries, fibers shed by synthetic

clothing in the wash, or eroded remnants of larger debris. Compared to the number

of studies investigating large-scale debris, Rochman’s group found little research on

the effects of these tiny bits. ‘There are a lot of open questions still for microplastic,’

Rochman says, though she notes that more papers on the subject have been

published since 2013, the cutoff point for the group’s analysis.

There are also, she adds, a lot of open questions about the ways that ocean debris

can lead to sea-creature death. Many studies have looked at how plastic affects an

individual animal, or that animal’s tissues or cells, rather than whole populations. And

in the lab, scientists often use higher concentrations of plastic than what’s really in

the ocean. None of that tells us how many birds or fish or sea turtles could die from

plastic pollution – or how deaths in one species could affect that animal’s predators,

or the rest of the ecosystem.

‘We need to be asking more ecologically relevant questions,’ Rochman says. Usually,

scientists don’t know exactly how disasters such as a tanker accidentally spilling its

whole cargo of oil and polluting huge areas of the ocean will affect the environment

until after they’ve happened. ‘We don’t ask the right questions early enough,’ she

says. But if ecologists can understand how the slow-moving effect of ocean trash is

damaging ecosystems, they might be able to prevent things from getting worse.

Asking the right questions can help policy makers, and the public, figure out where to

focus their attention. The problems that look or sound most dramatic may not be the

best places to start. For example, the name of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – a

collection of marine debris in the northern Pacific Ocean – might conjure up a vast,

floating trash island. In reality though, much of the debris is tiny or below the surface;

a person could sail through the area without seeing any trash at all. A Dutch group

called ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ is currently working on plans to put mechanical devices

in the Pacific Garbage Patch and similar areas to suck up plastic. But a recent paper

used simulations to show that strategically positioning the cleanup devices closer to

shore would more effectively reduce pollution over the long term.

‘I think clearing up some of these misperceptions is really important,’ Rochman says.

Among scientists as well as in the media, she says, ‘A lot of the images about

strandings and entanglement and all of that cause the perception that plastic debris

is killing everything in the ocean.’ Interrogating the existing scientific literature can

help ecologists figure out which problems really need addressing, and which ones

they’d be better off – like the mussels – absorbing and ignoring.

Rochman and her colleagues were the first people to research the problem of marine

debris.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The creatures most in danger from ocean trash are certain seabirds.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The studies Rochman has reviewed have already proved that populations of some

birds will soon become extinct.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Rochman analysed papers on the different kinds of danger caused by ocean trash.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

31.

Most of the research analysed by Rochman and her colleagues was badly designed.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

One study examined by Rochman was expecting to find that mussels were harmed

by eating plastic.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Some mussels choose to eat plastic in preference to their natural diet.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Findings related to marine debris

Studies of marine debris found the biggest threats were

• plastic (not metal or wood)

• bits of debris that were ………………………….. (harmful to animals)34

There was little research into …………………………. e.g. from synthetic fibres.35

Drawbacks of the studies examined

• most of them focused on individual animals, not entire 36 ………………………..

• the …………………….. of plastic used in the lab did not always reflect those in 37

the ocean

• there was insufficient information on

– numbers of animals which could be affected

– the impact of a reduction in numbers on the ……………………….. of that 38

species

– the impact on the ecosystem

Rochman says more information is needed on the possible impact of

future ………………………… (e.g. involving oil).39

What would be the best title for this passage?

A. Assessing the threat of marine debris

B. Marine debris: who is to blame?

C. A new solution to the problem of marine debris

D. Marine debris: the need for international action

Cam IELTS 15 reading test 1

Nutmeg – a valuable spice

The nutmeg tree, , is a large evergreen tree native to Southeast Myristica fragrans

Asia. Until the late 18th century, it only grew in one place in the world: a small group

of islands in the Banda Sea, part of the Moluccas – or Spice Islands – in northeastern

Indonesia. The tree is thickly branched with dense foliage of tough, dark green oval

leaves, and produces small, yellow, bell-shaped flowers and pale yellow pear-shaped

fruits. The fruit is encased in a flesh husk. When the fruit is ripe, this husk splits into

two halves along a ridge running the length of the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny

seed, 2-3 cm long by about 2 cm across, surrounded by a lacy red or crimson

covering called an ‘aril’. These are the sources of the two spices nutmeg and mace,

the former being produced from the dried seed and the latter from the aril.

Nutmeg was a highly prized and costly ingredient in European cuisine in the Middle

Ages, and was used as a flavouring, medicinal, and preservative agent. Throughout

this period, the Arabs were the exclusive importers of the spice to Europe. They sold

nutmeg for high prices to merchants based in Venice, but they never revealed the

exact location of the source of this extremely valuable commodity. The Arab-Venetian

dominance of the trade finally ended in 1512, when the Portuguese reached the

Banda Islands and began exploiting its precious resources.

Always in danger of competition from neighbouring Spain, the Portuguese began

subcontracting their spice distribution to Dutch traders. Profits began to flow into the

Netherlands, and the Dutch commercial fleet swiftly grew into one of the largest in

the world. The Dutch quietly gained control of most of the shipping and trading of

spices in Northern Europe. Then, in 1580, Portugal fell under Spanish rule, and by

the end of the 16th century the Dutch found themselves locked out of the market. As

prices for pepper, nutmeg, and other spices soared across Europe, they decided to

fight back.

In 1602, Dutch merchants founded the VOC, a trading corporation better known as

the Dutch East India Company. By 1617, the VOC was the richest commercial

operation in the world. The company had 50,000 employees worldwide, with a private

army of 30,000 men and a fleet of 200 ships. At the same time, thousands of people

across Europe were dying of the plague, a highly contagious and deadly disease.

Doctors were desperate for a way to stop the spread of this disease, and they

decided nutmeg held the cure. Everybody wanted nutmeg, and many were willing to

spare no expense to have it. Nutmeg bought for a few pennies in Indonesia could be

sold for 68,000 times its original cost on the streets of London. The only problem was

the short supply. And that’s where the Dutch found their opportunity.

The Banda Islands were ruled by local sultans who insisted on maintaining a neutral

trading policy towards foreign powers. This allowed them to avoid the presence of

Portuguese or Spanish troops on their soil, but it also left them unprotected from

other invaders. In 1621, the Dutch arrived and took over. Once securely in control of

the Bandas, the Dutch went to work protecting their new investment. They

concentrated all nutmeg production into a few easily guarded areas, uprooting and

destroying any trees outside the plantation zones. Anyone caught growing a nutmeg

seedling or carrying seeds without the proper authority was severely punished. In

addition, all exported nutmeg was covered with lime to make sure there was no

chance a fertile seed which could be grown elsewhere would leave the islands. There

was only one obstacle to Dutch domination. One of the Banda Islands, a sliver of

land called Run, only 3 km long by less than 1 km wide, was under the control of the

British. After decades of fighting for control of this tiny island, the Dutch and British

arrived at a compromise settlement, the Treaty of Breda, in 1667. Intent on securing

their hold over every nutmeg-producing island, the Dutch offered a trade: if the British

would give them the island of Run, they would in turn give Britain a distant and much

less valuable island in North America. The British agreed. That other island was

Manhattan, which is how New Amsterdam became New York. The Dutch now had a

monopoly over the nutmeg trade which would last for another century.

Then, in 1770, a Frenchman named Pierre Poivre successfully smuggled nutmeg

plants to safety in Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa. Some of these were

later exported to the Caribbean where they thrived, especially on the island of

Grenada. Next, in 1778, a volcanic eruption in the Banda region caused a tsunami

that wiped out half the nutmeg groves. Finally, in 1809, the British returned to

Indonesia and seized the Banda Islands by force. They returned the islands to the

Dutch in 1817, but not before transplanting hundreds of nutmeg seedlings to

plantations in several locations across southern Asia. The Dutch nutmeg monopoly

was over.

Today, nutmeg is grown in Indonesia, the Caribbean, India, Malaysia, Papua New

Guinea and Sri Lanka, and world nutmeg production is estimated to average

between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes per year.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The nutmeg tree and fruit

● the leaves of the tree are ……………………. in shape1

● the ……………………. surrounds the fruit and breaks open when the fruit is ripe2

● the ……………………. is used to produce the spice nutmeg3

● the covering known as the aril is used to produce 4……………………..

● the tree has yellow flowers and fruit

In the Middle Ages, most Europeans knew where nutmeg was grown.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The VOC was the world’s first major trading company.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Following the Treaty of Breda, the Dutch had control of all the islands where nutmeg

grew.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Middle Ages Nutmeg was brought to Europe by

the 8……………

16th century European nations took control of the

nutmeg trade

17th century Demand for nutmeg grew, as it was

believed to be effective against the

disease known as the 9……………

The Dutch

– took control of the Banda Islands

– restricted nutmeg production to a few

areas

– put on nutmeg to avoid 10……………

it being cultivated outside the islands

– finally obtained the island

of 11…………… from the British

Late 18th

century

1770 – nutmeg plants were secretly taken

to 12……………

1778 – half the Banda Islands’ nutmeg

plantations were destroyed by

a ……………13

Driverless cars

The automotive sector is well used to adapting to automation in manufacturing. The

implementation of robotic car manufacture from the 1970s onwards led to significant

cost savings and improvements in the reliability and flexibility of vehicle mass

production. A new challenge to vehicle production is now on the horizon and, again, it

comes from automation. However, this time it is not to do with the manufacturing

process, but with the vehicles themselves.

Research projects on vehicle automation are not new. Vehicles with limited self-

driving capabilities have been around for more than 50 years, resulting in significant

contributions towards driver assistance systems. But since Google announced in

2010 that it had been trialling self-driving cars on the streets of California, progress in

this field has quickly gathered pace.

There are many reasons why technology is advancing so fast. One frequently cited

motive is safety; indeed, research at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory has

demonstrated that more than 90 percent of road collisions involve human error as a

contributory factor, and it is the primary cause in the vast majority. Automation may

help to reduce the incidence of this.

Another aim is to free the time people spend driving for other purposes. If the vehicle

can do some or all of the driving, it may be possible to be productive, to socialise or

simply to relax while automation systems have responsibility for safe control of the

vehicle. If the vehicle can do the driving, those who are challenged by existing

mobility models – such as older or disabled travellers – may be able to enjoy

significantly greater travel autonomy.

Beyond these direct benefits, we can consider the wider implications for transport

and society, and how manufacturing processes might need to respond as a result. At

present, the average car spends more than 90 percent of its life parked. Automation

means that initiatives for car-sharing become much more viable, particularly in urban

areas with significant travel demand. If a significant proportion of the population

choose to use shared automated vehicles, mobility demand can be met by far fewer

vehicles.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigated automated mobility in

Singapore, finding that fewer than 30 percent of the vehicles currently used would be

required if fully automated car sharing could be implemented. If this is the case, it

might mean that we need to manufacture far fewer vehicles to meet demand.

However, the number of trips being taken would probably increase, partly because

empty vehicles would have to be moved from one customer to the next.

Modelling work by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

suggests automated vehicles might reduce vehicle ownership by 43 percent, but that

vehicles’ average annual mileage double as a result. As a consequence, each vehicle

would be used more intensively, and might need replacing sooner. This faster rate of

turnover may mean that vehicle production will not necessarily decrease

Automation may prompt other changes in vehicle manufacture. If we move to a

model where consumers are tending not to own a single vehicle but to purchase

access to a range of vehicle through a mobility provider, drivers will have the freedom

to select one that best suits their needs for a particular journey, rather than making a

compromise across all their requirements.

Since, for most of the time, most of the seats in most cars are unoccupied, this may

boost production of a smaller, more efficient range of vehicles that suit the needs of

individuals. Specialised vehicles may then be available for exceptional journeys, such

as going on a family camping trip or helping a son or daughter move to university.

There are a number of hurdles to overcome in delivering automated vehicles to our

roads. These include the technical difficulties in ensuring that the vehicle works

reliably in the infinite range of traffic, weather and road situations it might encounter;

the regulatory challenges in understanding how liability and enforcement might

change when drivers are no longer essential for vehicle operation; and the societal

changes that may be required for communities to trust and accept automated

vehicles as being a valuable part of the mobility landscape.

It’s clear that there are many challenges that need to be addressed but, through

robust and targeted research, these can most probably be conquered within the next

10 years. Mobility will change in such potentially significant ways and in association

with so many other technological developments, such as telepresence and virtual

reality, that it is hard to make concrete predictions about the future. However, one

thing is certain: change is coming, and the need to be flexible in response to this will

be vital for those involved in manufacturing the vehicles that will deliver future

mobility.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-G 14-18

reference to the amount of time when a car is not in use

mention of several advantages of driverless vehicles for individual road-users

reference to the opportunity of choosing the most appropriate vehicle for each trip

an estimate of how long it will take to overcome a number of problems

a suggestion that the use of driverless cars may have no effect on the number of

vehicles manufactured

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The impact of driverless cars

Figures from the Transport Research Laboratory indicate that most motor accidents

are partly due to ……………………., so the introduction of driverless vehicles will 19

result in greater safety. In addition to the direct benefits of automation, it may bring

other advantages. For example, schemes for ………………………. will be more 20

workable, especially in towns and cities, resulting in fewer cars on the road.

According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, there

could be a 43 percent drop in …………………….. of cars. However, this would 21

mean that the yearly …………………….. of each car would, on average, be twice 22

as high as it currently is. this would lead to a higher turnover of vehicles, and

therefore no reduction in automotive manufacturing.

Which benefits of automated vehicles does the writer mention?TWO

A Car travellers could enjoy considerable cost savings.

B It would be easier to find parking spaces in urban areas.

C Travellers could spend journeys doing something other than driving.

D People who find driving physically difficult could travel independently.

E A reduction in the number of cars would mean a reduction in pollution.

Which challenges to automated vehicle development does the writer mention?TWO

A making sure the general public has confidence in automated vehicles

B managing the pace of transition from conventional to automated vehicles

C deciding how to compensate professional drivers who become redundant

D setting up the infrastructure to make roads suitable for automated vehicles

E getting automated vehicles to adapt to various different driving conditions

What is exploration?

We are all explores. Our desire to discover, and then share that new-found

knowledge, is part of what makes us human – indeed, this has played an important

part in our success as a species. Long before the first caveman slumped down

beside the fire and grunted news that there were plenty of wildebeest over yonder,

our ancestors had learnt the value of sending out scouts to investigate the unknown.

This questing nature of ours undoubtedly helped our species spread around the

globe, just as it nowadays no doubt helps the last nomadic Penan maintain their

existence in the depleted forests of Borneo, and a visitor negotiate the subways of

New York.

Over the years, we’ve come to think of explorers as a peculiar breed – different from

the rest of us, different from those of us who are merely ‘well travelled’, even; and

perhaps there a type of person more suited to seeking out the new, a type of is

caveman more inclined to risk venturing out. That, however, doesn’t take away from

the fact that we all have this enquiring instinct, even today; and that in all sorts of

professions – whether artist, marine biologist or astronomer – borders of the

unknown are being tested each day.

Thomas Hardy set some of his novels in Egdon Heath, a fictional area of uncultivated

land, and used the landscape to suggest the desires and fears of his characters. He

is delving into matters we all recognise because they are common to humanity. This

is surely an act of exploration, and into a world as remote as the author chooses.

Explorer and travel writer Peter Fleming talks of the moment when the explorer

returns to the existence he has left behind with his loved ones. The traveller ‘who has

for weeks or months seen himself only as a puny and irrelevant alien crawling

laboriously over a country in which he has no roots and no background, suddenly

encounters his other self, a relatively solid figure, with a place in the minds of certain

people’.

In this book about the exploration of the earth’s surface, I have confined myself to

those whose travels were real and who also aimed at more than personal discovery.

But that still left me with another problem: the word ‘explorer’ has become associated

with a past era. We think back to a golden age, as if exploration peaked somehow in

the 19th century – as if the process of discovery is now on the decline, though the

truth is that we have named only one and a half million of this planet’s species, and

there may be more than 10 million – and that’s not including bacteria. We have

studied only 5 per cent of the species we know. We have scarcely mapped the ocean

floors, and know even less about ourselves; we fully understand the workings of only

10 per cent of our brains.

Here is how some of today’s ‘explorers’ define the word. Ran Fiennes, dubbed the

‘greatest living explorer’, said, ‘An explorer is someone who has done something that

no human has done before – and also done something scientifically useful.’ Chris

Bonington, a leading mountaineer, felt exploration was to be found in the act of

physically touching the unknown: ‘You have to have gone somewhere new.’ Then

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a campaigner on behalf of remote so-called ‘tribal’ peoples,

said, ‘A traveller simply records information about some far-off world, and reports

back; but an explorer the world.’ Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed Arabia’s changes

Empty Quarter in 1946, and belongs to an era of unmechanised travel now lost to the

rest of us, told me, ‘If I’d gone across by camel when I could have gone by car, it

would have been a stunt.’ To him, exploration meant bringing back information from a

remote place regardless of any great self-discovery.

Each definition is slightly different – and tends to reflect the field of endeavour of

each pioneer. It was the same whoever I asked: the prominent historian would say

exploration was a thing of the past, the cutting-edge scientist would say it was of the

present. And so on. They each set their own particular criteria; the common factor in

their approach being that they all had, unlike many of us who simply enjoy travel or

discovering new things, both a very definite objective from the outset and also a

desire to record their findings.

I’d best declare my own bias. As a writer, I’m interested in the exploration of ideas.

I’ve done a great many expeditions and each one was unique. I’ve lived for months

alone with isolated groups of people all around the world, even two ‘uncontacted

tribes’. But none of these things is of the slightest interest to anyone unless, through

my books, I’ve found a new slant, explored a new idea. Why? Because the world has

moved on. The time has long passed for the great continental voyages – another

walk to the poles, another crossing of the Empty Quarter. We know how the land

surface of our planet lies; exploration of it is now down to the details – the habits of

microbes, say, or the grazing behaviour of buffalo. Aside from the deep sea and deep

underground, it’s the era of specialists. However, this is to disregard the role the

human mind has in conveying remote places; and this is what interests me: how a

fresh interpretation, even of a well-travelled route, can give its readers new insights.

The writer refers to visitors to New York to illustrate the point that

A. exploration is an intrinsic element of being human.

B. most people are enthusiastic about exploring.

C. exploration can lead to surprising results.

D. most people find exploration daunting.

According to the second paragraph, what is the writer’s view of explorers?

A. Their discoveries have brought both benefits and disadvantages.

B. Their main value is in teaching others.

C. They act on an urge that is common to everyone.

D. They tend to be more attracted to certain professions than to others.

The writer refers to a description of Egdon Heath to suggest that

A. Hardy was writing about his own experience of exploration.

B. Hardy was mistaken about the nature of exploration.

C. Hardy’s aim was to investigate people’s emotional states.

D. Hardy’s aim was to show the attraction of isolation.

In the fourth paragraph, the writer refers to ‘a golden age’ to suggest that

A. the amount of useful information produced by exploration has decreased.

B. fewer people are interested in exploring than in the 19th century.

C. recent developments have made exploration less exciting.

D. we are wrong to think that exploration is no longer necessary.

In the sixth paragraph, when discussing the definition of exploration, the writer

argues that

A. people tend to relate exploration to their own professional interests.

B. certain people are likely to misunderstand the nature of exploration.

C. the generally accepted definition has changed over time.

D. historians and scientists have more valid definitions than the general public.

In the last paragraph, the writer explains that he is interested in

A. how someone’s personality is reflected in their choice of places to visit.

B. the human ability to cast new light on places that may be familiar.

C. how travel writing has evolved to meet changing demands.

D. the feelings that writers develop about the places that they explore.

List of Explorers

A Peter Fleming

B Ran Fiennes

C Chris Bonington

D Robin Hanbury-Tenison

E Wilfred Thesiger

He referred to the relevance of the form of transport used.

He described feelings on coming back home after a long journey.

He worked for the benefit of specific groups of people.

He did not consider learning about oneself an essential part of exploration.

He defined exploration as being both unique and of value to others.

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The writer’s own bias

The writer has experience of a large number of ………………., and was the first 38

stranger that certain previously ………………… people had encountered. He 39

believes there is no need for further exploration of Earth’s …………………., except40

to answer specific questions such as how buffalo eat.

Cam IELTS 15 reading test 2

Could urban engineers learn from dance?

The way we travel around cities has a major impact on whether they are sustainable.

Transportation is estimated to account for 30% of energy consumption in most of the

world’s most developed nations, so lowering the need for energy-using vehicles is

essential for decreasing the environmental impact of mobility. But as more and more

people move to cities, it is important to think about other kinds of sustainable travel

too. The ways we travel affect our physical and mental health, our social lives, our

access to work and culture, and the air we breathe. Engineers are tasked with

changing how we travel round cities through urban design, but the engineering

industry still works on the assumptions that led to the creation of the energy-

consuming transport systems we have now: the emphasis placed solely on efficiency,

speed, and quantitative data. We need radical changes, to make it healthier, more

enjoyable, and less environmentally damaging to travel around cities.

Dance might hold some of the answers. That is not to suggest everyone should

dance their way to work, however healthy and happy it might make us, but rather that

the techniques used by choreographers to experiment with and design movement in

dance could provide engineers with tools to stimulate new ideas in city-making.

Richard Sennett, an influential urbanist and sociologist who has transformed ideas

about the way cities are made, argues that urban design has suffered from a

separation between mind and body since the introduction of the architectural

blueprint.

Whereas medieval builders improvised and adapted construction through their

intimate knowledge of materials and personal experience of the conditions on a site,

building designs are now conceived and stored in media technologies that detach the

designer from the physical and social realities they are creating. While the design

practices created by these new technologies are essential for managing the technical

complexity of the modern city, they have the drawback of simplifying reality in the

process.

To illustrate, Sennett discusses the Peachtree Center in Atlanta, USA, a development

typical of the modernist approach to urban planning prevalent in the 1970s.

Peachtree created a grid of streets and towers intended as a new pedestrian-friendly

downtown for Atlanta. According to Sennett, this failed because its designers had

invested too much faith in computer-aided design to tell them how it would operate.

They failed to take into account that purpose-built street cafés could not operate in

the hot sun without the protective awnings common in older buildings, and would

need energy-consuming air conditioning instead, or that its giant car park would feel

so unwelcoming that it would put people off getting out of their cars. What seems

entirely predictable and controllable on screen has unexpected results when

translated into reality.

The same is true in transport engineering, which uses models to predict and shape

the way people move through the city. Again, these models are necessary, but they

are built on specific world views in which certain forms of efficiency and safety are

considered and other experience of the city ignored. Designs that seem logical in

models appear counter-intuitive in the actual experience of their users. The guard

rails that will be familiar to anyone who has attempted to cross a British road, for

example, were an engineering solution to pedestrian safety based on models that

prioritise the smooth flow of traffic. On wide major roads, they often guide pedestrians

to specific crossing points and slow down their progress across the road by using

staggered access points divide the crossing into two – one for each carriageway. In

doing so they make crossings feel longer, introducing psychological barriers greatly

impacting those that are the least mobile, and encouraging others to make

dangerous crossings to get around the guard rails. These barriers don’t just make it

harder to cross the road: they divide communities and decrease opportunities for

healthy transport. As a result, many are now being removed, causing disruption, cost,

and waste.

If their designers had had the tools to think with their bodies – like dancers – and

imagine how these barriers would feel, there might have been a better solution. In

order to bring about fundamental changes to the ways we use our cities, engineering

will need to develop a richer understanding of why people move in certain ways, and

how this movement affects them. Choreography may not seem an obvious choice for

tackling this problem. Yet it shares with engineering the aim of designing patterns of

movement within limitations of space. It is an art form developed almost entirely by

trying out ideas with the body, and gaining instant feedback on how the results feel.

Choreographers have deep understanding of the psychological, aesthetic, and

physical implications of different ways of moving.

Observing the choreographer Wayne McGregor, cognitive scientist David Kirsh

described how he ‘thinks with the body’, Kirsh argues that by using the body to

simulate outcomes, McGregor is able to imagine solutions that would not be possible

using purely abstract thought. This kind of physical knowledge is valued in many

areas of expertise, but currently has no place in formal engineering design

processes. A suggested method for transport engineers is to improvise design

solutions and instant feedback about how they would work from their own experience

of them, or model designs at full scale in the way choreographers experiment with

groups of dancers. Above all, perhaps, they might learn to design for emotional as

well as functional effects.

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-G 1-6

reference to an appealing way of using dance that the writer is not proposing

an example of a contrast between past and present approaches to building

mention of an objective of both dance and engineering

reference to an unforeseen problem arising from ignoring the climate

why some measures intended to help people are being reversed

reference to how transport has an impact on human lives

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Guard rails

Guard rails were introduced on British roads to improve the …………………… of 7

pedestrians, while ensuring that the movement of ……………………. is not 8

disrupted. Pedestrians are led to access points, and encouraged to cross

one …………………….. at a time.9

An unintended effect is to create psychological difficulties in crossing the road,

particularly for less ………………….. people. Another result is that some people 10

cross the road in a 11……………………. way. The guard rails

separate ……………………., and make it more difficult to introduce forms of 12

transport that are …………………….13

Should we try to bring extinct species back to life?

The passenger pigeon was a legendary species. Flying in vast numbers across North

America, with potentially many millions within a single flock, their migration was once

one of nature’s great spectacles. Sadly, the passenger pigeon’s existence came to an

end on 1 September 1914, when the last living specimen died at Cincinnati Zoo.

Geneticist Ben Novak is lead researcher on an ambitious project which now aims to

bring the bird back to life through a process known as ‘de-extinction’. The basic

premise involves using cloning technology to turn the DNA of extinct animals into a

fertilised embryo, which is carried by the nearest relative still in existence – in this

case, the abundant band-tailed pigeon – before being born as a living, breathing

animal. Passenger pigeons are one of the pioneering species in this field, but they

are far from the only ones on which this cutting-edge technology is being trialled.

In Australia, the thylacine, more commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, is another

extinct creature which genetic scientists are striving to bring back to life. ‘There is no

carnivore now in Tasmania that fills the niche which thylacines once occupied,’

explains Michael Archer of the University of New South Wales. He points out that in

the decades since the thylacine went extinct, there has been a spread in a

‘dangerously debilitating’ facial tumour syndrome which threatens the existence of

the Tasmanian devils, the island’s other notorious resident. Thylacines would have

prevented this spread because they would have killed significant numbers of

Tasmanian devils. ‘If that contagious cancer had popped up previously, it would have

burned out in whatever region it started. The return of thylacines to Tasmania could

help to ensure that devils are never again subjected to risks of this kind.’

If extinct species can be brought back to life, can humanity begin to correct the

damage it has caused to the natural world over the past few millennia? ‘The idea of

de-extinction is that we can reverse this process, bringing species that no longer

exist back to life,’ says Beth Shapiro of University of California Santa Cruz’s

Genomics Institute. ‘I don’t think that we can do this. There is no way to bring back

something that is 100 per cent identical to a species that went extinct a long time

ago.’ A more practical approach for long-extinct species is to take the DNA of existing

species as a template, ready for the insertion of strands of extinct animal DNA to

create something new; a hybrid, based on the living species, but which looks and/or

acts like the animal which died out.

This complicated process and questionable outcome begs the question: what is the

actual point of this technology? ‘For us, the goal has always been replacing the

extinct species with a suitable replacement,’ explains Novak. ‘When it comes to

breeding, band-tailed pigeons scatter and make maybe one or two nests per hectare,

whereas passenger pigeons were very social and would make 10,000 or more nests

in one hectare.’ Since the disappearance of this key species, ecosystems in the

eastern US have suffered, as the lack of disturbance caused by thousands of

passenger pigeons wrecking trees and branches means there has been minimal

need for regrowth. This has left forests stagnant and therefore unwelcoming to the

plants and animals which evolved to help regenerate the forest after a disturbance.

According to Novak, a hybridized band-tailed pigeon, with the added nesting habits of

a passenger pigeon, could, in theory, re-establish that forest disturbance, thereby

creating a habitat necessary for a great many other native species to thrive.

Another popular candidate for this technology is the woolly mammoth. George

Church, professor at Harvard Medical School and leader of the Woolly Mammoth

Revival Project, has been focusing on cold resistance, the main way in which the

extinct woolly mammoth and its nearest living relative, the Asian elephant, differ. By

pinpointing which genetic traits made it possible for mammoths to survive the icy

climate of the tundra, the project’s goal is to return mammoths, or a mammoth-like

species, to the area. ‘My highest priority would be preserving the endangered Asian

elephant,’ says Church, ‘expanding their range to the huge ecosystem of the tundra.

Necessary adaptations would include smaller ears, thicker hair, and extra insulating

fat, all for the purpose of reducing heat loss in the tundra, and all traits found in the

now extinct woolly mammoth.’ This repopulation of the tundra and boreal forests of

Eurasia and North America with large mammals could also be a useful factor in

reducing carbon emissions – elephants punch holes through snow and knock down

trees, which encourages grass growth. This grass growth would reduce temperature,

and mitigate emissions from melting permafrost.

While the prospect of bringing extinct animals back to life might capture imaginations,

it is, of course, far easier to try to save an existing species which is merely

threatened with extinction. ‘Many of the technologies that people have in mind when

they think about de-extinction can be used as a form of “genetic rescue”,’ explains

Shapiro. She prefers to focus the debate on how this emerging technology could be

used to fully understand why various species went extinct in the first place, and

therefore how we could use it to make genetic modifications which could prevent

mass extinctions in the future. ‘I would also say there’s an incredible moral hazard to

not do anything at all,’ she continues. ‘We know that what we are doing today is not

enough, and we have to be willing to take some calculated and measured risks.’

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-F 14-17

NB You may use any letter more than once.

a reference to how further disappearance of multiple species could be avoided.

explanation of a way of reproducing an extinct animal using the DNA of only that

species

reference to a habitat which has suffered following the extinction of a species

mention of the exact point at which a particular species became extinct

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

The woolly mammoth revival project

Professor George Church and his team are trying to identify the …………………… 18

which enabled mammoths to live in the tundra. The findings could help preserve the

mammoth’s close relative, the endangered Asian elephant.

According to Church, introducing Asian elephants to the tundra would involve certain

physical adaptations to minimise …………………… To survive in the tundra, the 19

species would need to have the mammoth-like features of thicker

hair, ………………….. of a reduced size and more 20 21……………………..

Repopulating the tundra with mammoths or Asian elephant/mammoth hybrids would

also have an impact on the environment, which could help to reduce temperatures

and decrease ……………………22

List of People

A Ben Novak

B Michael Archer

C Beth Shapiro

Reintroducing an extinct species to its original habitat could improve the health of a

particular species living there.

It is important to concentrate on the causes of an animal’s extinction.

A species brought back from extinction could have an important beneficial impact on

the vegetation of its habitat.

Our current efforts at preserving biodiversity are insufficient.

Having a laugh

The findings of psychological scientists reveal the importance of humour

Humans start developing a sense of humour as early as six weeks old, when babies

begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all

human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like

other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humour provide psychological

scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the

development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.

Theories focusing on the evolution of laughter point to it as an important adaptation

for social communication. Take, for example, the recorded laughter in TV comedy

shows. Back in 1950, US sound engineer Charley Douglass hated dealing with the

unpredictable laughter of live audiences, so started recording his own ‘laugh tracks’.

These were intended to help people at home feel like they were in a social situation,

such as a crowded theatre. Douglass even recorded various types of laughter, as

well as mixtures of laugher from men, women, and children. In doing so, he picked

up on a quality of laughter that is now interesting researchers: a simple ‘haha’

communicates a remarkable amount of socially relevant information.

In one study conducted in 2016, samples of laughter from pairs of English-speaking

students were recorded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A team made up

of more than 30 psychological scientists, anthropologists, and biologists then played

these recording to listeners from 24 diverse societies, from indigenous tribes in New

Guinea to city-dwellers in India and Europe. Participants were asked whether they

thought the people laughing were friends or strangers. On average, the results were

remarkably consistent: worldwide, people’s guesses were correct approximately 60%

of the time.

Researchers have also found that different types of laughter serve as codes to

complex human social hierarchies. A team led by Christopher Oveis from the

University of California, San Diego, found that high-status individuals had different

laughs from low-status individuals, and that strangers’ judgements of an individual’s

social status were influenced by the dominant or submissive quality of their laughter.

In their study, 48 male college students were randomly assigned to groups of four,

with each group composed of two low-status members, who had just joined their

college fraternity group, and two high-status members, older student took a turn at

being teased by the others, involving the use of mildly insulting nicknames. Analysis

revealed that, as expected, high-status individuals produced more dominant laughs

and fewer submissive laughs relative to the low-status individuals. Meanwhile, low-

status individuals were more likely to change their laughter based on their position of

power; that is, the newcomers produced more dominant laughs when they were in

the ‘powerful’ role of teasers. Dominant laughter was higher in pitch, louder, and

more variable in tone than submissive laughter.

A random group of volunteers then listened to an equal number of dominant and

submissive laughs from both the high- and low-status individuals, and were asked to

estimate the social status of the laughter. In line with predictions, laughers producing

dominant laughs were perceived to be significantly higher in status than laughers

producing submissive laughs. ‘This was particularly true for low-status individuals,

who were rated as significantly higher in status when displaying a dominant versus

submissive laugh,’ Oveis and colleagues note. ‘Thus, by strategically displaying more

dominant laughter when the context allows, low-status individuals may achieve

higher status in the eyes of others.’ However, high-status individuals were rated as

high-status whether they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a

submissive one.

Another study, conducted by David Cheng and Lu Wang of Australian National

University, was based on the hypothesis that humour might provide a respite from

tedious situations in the workplace. This ‘mental break’ might facilitate the

replenishment of mental resources. To test this theory, the researchers recruited 74

business students, ostensibly for an experiment on perception. First, the students

performed a tedious task in which they had to cross out every instance of the letter ‘e’

over two pages of text. The students then were randomly assigned to watch a video

clip eliciting either humour, contentment, or neutral feelings. Some watched a clip of

the BBC comedy Mr. Bean, others a relaxing scene with dolphins swimming in the

ocean, and others a factual video about the management profession.

The students then completed a task requiring persistence in which they were asked

to guess the potential performance of employees based on provided profiles, and

were told that making 10 correct assessments in a row would lead to a win. However,

the software was programmed such that is was nearly impossible to achieve 10

consecutive correct answers. Participants were allowed to quit the task at any point.

Students who had watched the Mr. Bean video ended up spending significantly more

time working on the task, making twice as many predictions as the other two groups.

Cheng and Wang then replicated these results in a second study, during which they

had participants complete long multiplication questions by hand. Again, participants

who watched the humorous video spent significantly more time working on this

tedious task and completed more questions correctly than did the students in either

of the other groups.

‘Although humour has been found to help relieve stress and facilitate social

relationships, traditional view of task performance implies that individuals should

avoid things such as humour that may distract them from the accomplishment of task

goals,’ Cheng and Wang conclude. ‘We suggest that humour is not only enjoyable

but more importantly, energising.’

When referring to laughter in the first paragraphs, the writer emphasises

A. its impact on language.

B. its function in human culture.

C. its value to scientific research.

D. its universality in animal societies.

What does the writer suggest about Charley Douglass?

A. He understood the importance of enjoying humour in a group setting.

B. He believed that TV viewers at home needed to be told when to laugh.

C. He wanted his shows to appeal to audiences across the social spectrum.

D. He preferred shows where audiences were present in the recording studio.

What makes the Santa Cruz study particularly significant?

A. the various different types of laughter that were studied

B. the similar results produced by a wide range of cultures

C. the number of different academic disciplines involved

D. the many kinds of people whose laughter was recorded

Which of the following happened in the SanDiego study?

A. Some participants became very upset.

B. Participants exchanged roles.

C. Participants who had not met before became friends.

D. Some participants were unable to laugh.

In the fifth paragraph, what did the results of the San Diego study suggest?

A. It is clear whether a dominant laugh is produced by a high- or low-status

person.

B. Low-status individuals in a position of power will still produce submissive

laughs.

C. The submissive laughs of low- and high-status individuals are surprisingly

similar.

D. High-status individuals can always be identified by their way of laughing.

Complete the summary using the list of words, , below.A-H

The benefits of humour

In one study at Australian National University, randomly chosen groups of participants

were shown one of three videos, each designed to generate a different kind

of ………………….. . When all participants were then given a deliberately 32

frustrating task to do, it was found that those who had watched

the …………………….. video persisted with the task for longer and tried harder to 33

accomplish the task than either of the other two groups.

A second study in which participants were asked to perform a

particularly ……………………… task produced similar results. According to 34

researchers David Cheng and Lu Wang, these findings suggest that humour not only

reduces …………………… and helps build social connections but it may also have35

a ……………………. Effect on the body and mind.36

A B C laughter relaxing boring

D F anxiety stimulating E emotion

G H enjoyment amusing

Participants in the Santa Cruz study were more accurate at identifying the laughs of

friends than those of strangers.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The researchers in the San Diego study were correct in their predictions regarding

the behaviour of the high-status individuals.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The participants in the Australian National University study were given a fixed amount

of time to complete the task focusing on employee profiles.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Cheng and Wang’s conclusions were in line with established notions regarding task

performance.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Cam IELTS 15 reading test 3

Henry Moore (1898-1986)

The British sculptor Henry Moore was a leading figure in the 20th-century art world

Henry Moore was born in Castleford, a small town near Leeds in the north of

England. He was the seventh child of Raymond Moore and his wife Mary Baker. He

studied at Castleford Grammar School from 1909 to 1915, where his early interest in

art was encouraged by his teacher Alice Gostick. After leaving school, Moore hoped

to become a sculptor, but instead he complied with his father’s wish that he train as a

schoolteacher. He had to abandon his training in 1917 when he was sent to France

to fight in the First World War.

After the war, Moore enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, where he studied for two

years. In his first year, he spent most of his time drawing. Although he wanted to

study sculpture, no teacher was appointed until his second year. At the end of that

year, he passed the sculpture examination and was awarded a scholarship to the

Royal College of Art in London. In September 1921, he moved to London and began

three years of advanced study in sculpture.

Alongside the instruction he received at the Royal College, Moore visited many of the

London museums, particularly the British Museum, which had a wide-ranging

collection of ancient sculpture. During these visits, he discovered the power and

beauty of ancient Egyptian and African sculpture. As he became increasingly

interested in these ‘primitive’ forms of art, he turned away from European sculptural

traditions.

After graduating, Moore spent the first six months of 1925 travelling in France. When

he visited the Trocadero Museum in Paris, he was impressed by a cast of a Mayan*

sculpture of the rain spirit. It was a male reclining figure with its knees drawn up

together, and its head at a right angle to its body. Moore became fascinated with this

stone sculpture, which he thought had a power and originality that no other stone

sculpture possessed. He himself started carving a variety of subjects in stone,

including depiction of reclining women, mother-and-child groups, and masks.

Moore’s exceptional talent soon gained recognition, and in 1926 he started work as a

sculpture instructor at the Royal College. In 1933, he became a member of a group

of young artists called Unit One. The aim of the group was to convince the English

public of the merits of the emerging international movement in modern art and

architecture.

Around this time, Moore moved away from the human figure to experiment with

abstract shapes. In 1931, he held an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London.

His work was enthusiastically welcomed by fellow sculptors, but the reviews in the

press were extremely negative and turned Moore into a notorious figure. There were

calls for his resignation from the Royal College, and the following year, when his

contract expired, he left to start a sculpture department at the Chelsea School of Art

in London.

Throughout the 1930s, Moore did not show any inclination to please the British

public. He became interested in the paintings of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso,

whose work inspired him to distort the human body in a radical way. At times, he

seemed to abandon the human figure altogether. The pages of his sketchbooks from

this period show his ideas for abstract sculptures that bore little resemblance to the

human form.

In 1940, during the Second World War, Moore stopped teaching at the Chelsea

School and moved to a farmhouse about 20 miles north of London. A shortage of

materials forced him to focus on drawing. He did numerous small sketches of

Londoners, later turning these ideas into large coloured drawings in his studio. In

1942, he returned to Castleford to make a series of sketches of the miners who

worked there.

In 1944, Harlow, a town near London, offered Moore a commission for a sculpture

depicting a family. The resulting work signifies a dramatic change in Moore’s style,

away from the experimentation of the 1930s towards a more natural and humanistic

subject matter. He did dozens of studies in clay for the sculpture, and these were

cast in bronze and issued in editions of seven to nine copies each. In this way,

Moore’s work became available to collectors all over the world. The boost to his

income enabled him to take on ambitious projects and start working on the scale he

felt his sculpture demanded.

Critics who had begun to think that Moore had become less revolutionary were

proven wrong by the appearance, in 1950, of the first of Moore’s series of standing

figures in bronze, with their harsh and angular pierced forms and distinct impression

of menace. Moore also varied his subject matter in the 1950s with such works

as Warrior with Shield Falling Warriorand . These were rare examples of Moore’s use

of the male figure and owe something to his visit to Greece in 1951, when he had the

opportunity to study ancient works of art.

In his final years, Moore created the Henry Moore Foundation to promote art

appreciation and to display his work. Moore was the first modern English sculptor to

achieve international critical acclaim and he is still regarded as one of the most

important sculptors of the 20th century.

—

*Mayan: belonging to an ancient civilisation that inhabited parts of current-day

Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.

On leaving school, Moore did what his father wanted him to do.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Moore began studying sculpture in his first term at the Leeds School of Art.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

When Moore started at the Royal College of Art, its reputation for teaching sculpture

was excellent.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Moore became aware of ancient sculpture as a result of visiting London Museums.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The Trocadero Museum’s Mayan sculpture attracted a lot of public interest.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Moore thought the Mayan sculpture was similar in certain respects to other stone

sculptures.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The artists who belonged to Unit One wanted to make modern art and architecture

more popular.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Moore’s career as an artist

1930s

● Moore’s exhibition at the Leicester Galleries is criticised by the press

● Moore is urged to offer his ………………… and leave the Royal College.8

1940s

● Moore turns to drawing because …………………. for sculpting are not readily 9

available

● While visiting his hometown, Moore does some drawings of ………………….10

● Moore is employed to produce a sculpture of a 11…………………

● 12………………. start to buy Moore’s work

● Moore’s increased …………………. makes it possible for him to do more 13

ambitious sculptures

1950s

● Moore’s series of bronze figures marks a further change in his style

The Desolenator: producing clean water

Travelling around Thailand in the 1990s, William Janssen was impressed with the

basic rooftop solar heating systems that were on many homes, where energy from

the sun was absorbed by a plate and then used to heat water for domestic use. Two

decades later Janssen developed that basic idea he saw in Southeast Asia into a

portable device that uses the power from the sun to purify water.

The Desolenator operates as a mobile desalination unit that can take water from

different places, such as the sea, rivers, boreholes and rain, and purify it for human

consumption. It is particularly valuable in regions where natural groundwater

reserves have been polluted, or where seawater is the only water source available.

Janssen saw that there was a need for a sustainable way to clean water is both the

developing and the developed countries when he moved to the United Arab Emirates

and saw large-scale water processing. ‘I was confronted with the enormous carbon

footprint that the Gulf nations have because of all of the desalination that they do,’ he

says.

The Desolenator can produce 15 litres of drinking water per day, enough to sustain a

family for cooking and drinking. Its main selling point is that unlike standard

desalination techniques, it doesn’t require a generated power supply: just sunlight. It

measures 120 cm by 90 cm, and it easy to transport, thanks to its two wheels. Water

enters through a pipe, and flows as a thin film between a sheet of double glazing and

the surface of a solar panel, where it is heated by the sun. The warm water flows into

a small boiler (heated by a solar-powered battery) where it is converted to steam.

When the steam cools, it becomes distilled water. The device has a very simple filter

to trap particles, and this can easily be shaken to remove them. There are two tubes

for liquid coming out: one for the waste – salt from seawater, fluoride, etc. – and

another for the distilled water. The performance of the unit is shown on an LCD

screen and transmitted to the company which provides servicing when necessary.

A recent analysis found that at least two-thirds of the world’s population lives with

severe water scarcity for at least a month every year. Janssen says that be 2030 half

of the world’s population will be living with water stress – where the demand exceeds

the supply over a certain period of time. ‘It is really important that a sustainable

solution is brought to the market that is able to help these people,’ he says. Many

countries ‘don’t have the money for desalination plants, which are very expensive to

build. They don’t have the money to operate them, they are very maintenance

intensive, and they don’t have the money to buy the diesel to run the desalination

plants, so it is a really bad situation.’

The device is aimed at a wide variety of users – from homeowners in the developing

world who do not have a constant supply of water to people living off the grid in rural

parts of the US. The first commercial versions of the Desolenator are expected to be

in operation in India early next year, after field tests are carried out. The market for

the self-sufficient devices in developing countries is twofold – those who cannot

afford the money for the device outright and pay through microfinance, and middle-

income homes that can lease their own equipment. ‘People in India don’t pay for a

fridge outright; they pay for it over six months. They would put the Desolenator on

their roof and hook it up to their municipal supply and they would get very reliable

drinking water on a daily basis,’ Janssen says. In the developed world, it is aimed at

niche markets where tap water is unavailable – for camping, on boats, or for the

military, for instance.

Prices will vary according to where it is bought. In the developing world, the price will

depend on what deal aid organisations can negotiate. In developed countries, it is

likely to come in at $1,000 (£685) a unit, said Janssen. ‘We are a venture with a

social mission. We are aware that the product we have envisioned is mainly finding

application in the developing world and humanitarian sector and that this is the way

we will proceed. We do realise, though, that to be a viable company there is a bottom

line to keep in mind,’ he says.

The company itself is based at Imperial College London, although Janssen, its chief

executive, still lives in the UAE. It has raised £340,000 in funding so far. Within two

years, he says, the company aims to be selling 1,000 units a month, mainly in the

humanitarian field. They are expected to be sold in areas such as Australia, northern

Chile, Peru, Texas and California.

List of Headings

i Getting the finance for production

ii An unexpected benefit

iii From initial inspiration to new product

iv The range of potential customers for the device

v What makes the device different from alternatives

vi Cleaning water from a range of sources

vii Overcoming production difficulties

viii Profit not the primary goal

ix A warm welcome for the device

x The number of people affected by water shortages

Section A

Section B

Section C

Section D

Section E

Section F

Section G

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

How the Desolenator works

The energy required to operate the Desolenator comes from sunlight. The device can

be used in different locations, as it has ………………… . Water is fed into a pipe, 21

and a ………………….. of water flows over a solar panel. The water then enters a 22

boiler, where it turns into steam. Any particles in the water are caught in

a ………………… . The purified water comes out through one tube, and all types 23

of ………………… come out through another. A screen displays 24

the ………………… of the device, and transmits the information to the company so25

that they know when the Desolenator requires …………………. .26

Why fairy tales are really scary tales

Some people think that fairy tales are just stories to amuse children, but their

universal and enduring appeal may be due to more serious reasons

People of every culture tell each other fairy tales but the same story often takes a

variety of forms in different parts of the world. In the story of Little Red Riding

Hood that European children are familiar with, a young girl on the way to see her

grandmother meets a wolf and tells him where she is going. The wolf runs on ahead

and disposes of the grandmother, then gets into bed dressed in the grandmother’s

clothes to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. You may think you know the story – but

which version? In some versions, the wolf swallows up the grandmother, while in

others it locks her in a cupboard. In some stories Red Riding Hood gets the better of

the wolf on her own, while in others a hunter or a woodcutter hears her cries and

comes to her rescue.

The universal appeal of these tales is frequently attributed to the idea that they

contain cautionary messages: in the case of , to listen to your Little Red Riding Hood

mother, and avoid talking to strangers. ‘It might be what we find interesting about this

story is that it’s got this survival-relevant information in it,’ says anthropologist Jamie

Tehrani at Durham University in the UK. But his research suggests otherwise. ‘We

have this huge gap in our knowledge about the history and prehistory of storytelling,

despite the fact that we know this genre is an incredibly ancient one,’ he says. That

hasn’t stopped anthropologists, folklorists* and other academics devising theories to

explain the importance of fairy tales in human society. Now Tehrani has found a way

to test these ideas, borrowing a technique from evolutionary biologists.

To work out the evolutionary history, development and relationships among groups of

organisms, biologists compare the characteristics of living species in a process called

‘phylogenetic analysis’. Tehrani has used the same approach to compare related

versions of fairy tales to discover how they have evolved and which elements have

survived longest.

Tehrani’s analysis focused on in its many forms, which includeLittle Red Riding Hood

another Western fairy tale known as . Checking for variants of The Wolf and the Kids

these two tales and similar stories from Africa, East Asia and other regions, he ended

up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions. Once his phylogenetic analysis had

established that they were indeed related, he used the same methods to explore how

they have developed and altered over time.

First he tested some assumptions about which aspects of the story alter least as it

evolves, indicating their importance. Folklorists believe that what happens in a story

is more central to the story than the characters in it – that visiting a relative, only to

be met by a scary animal in disguise, is more fundamental than whether the visitor is

a little girl or three siblings, or the animal is a tiger instead of a wolf.

However, Tehrani found no significant difference in the rate of evolution of incidents

compared with that of characters. ‘Certain episodes are very stable because they are

crucial to the story, but there are lots of other details that can evolve quite freely,’ he

says. Neither did his analysis support the theory that the central section of a story is

the most conserved part. He found no significant difference in the flexibility of events

there compared with the beginning or the end.

But the really big surprise came when he looked at the cautionary elements of the

story. ‘Studies on hunter-gatherer folk tales suggest that these narratives include

really important information about the environment and the possible dangers that

may be faced there – stuff that’s relevant to survival,’ he says. Yet in his analysis

such elements were just as flexible as seemingly trivial details. What, then, is

important enough to be reproduced from generation to generation?

The answer, it would appear, is fear – blood-thirsty and gruesome aspects of the

story, such as the eating of the grandmother by the wolf, turned out to be the best

preserved of all. Why are these details retained by generations of storytellers, when

other features are not? Tehrani has an idea: ‘In an oral context, a story won’t survive

because of one great teller. It also needs to be interesting when it’s told by someone

who’s not necessarily a great storyteller.’ Maybe being swallowed whole by a wolf,

then cut out of its stomach alive is so gripping that it helps the story remain popular,

no matter how badly it’s told.

Jack Zipes at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, is unconvinced by Tehrani’s

views on fairy tales. ‘Even if they’re gruesome, they won’t stick unless they matter,’

he says. He believes the perennial theme of women as victims in stories like Little

Red Riding Hood explains why they continue to feel relevant. But Tehrani points out

that although this is often the case in Western versions, it is not always true

elsewhere. In Chinese and Japanese versions, often known as The Tiger

Grandmother, the villain is a woman, and in both Iran and Nigeria, the victim is a boy.

Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark isn’t surprised by Tehrani’s findings.

‘Habits and morals change, but the things that scare us, and the fact that we seek out

entertainment that’s designed to scare us – those are constant,’ he says. Clasen

believes that scary stories teach us what it feels like to be afraid without having to

experience real danger, and so build up resistance to negative emotions.

—-

*Folklorists: those who study traditional stories

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, , below.A-F

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-F 27-31

A may be provided through methods used in biological research.

B are the reason for their survival.

C show considerable global variation.

D contain animals which transform to become humans.

E were originally spoken rather than written.

F have been developed without factual basis.

In fairy tales, details of the plot

Tehrani rejects the idea that the useful lessons for life in fairy tales

Various theories about the social significance of fairy tales

Insights into the development of fairy tales

31.

All the fairy tales analysed by Tehrani

Write the correct letter, , in boxes on your answer sheet.A-I 32-36

Phylogenetic analysis of Little Red Riding Hood

Tehrani used techniques from evolutionary biology to find out if ………………….. 32

existed among 58 stories from around the world. He also wanted to know which

aspects of the stories had fewest …………………., as he believed these aspects 33

would be the most important ones. Contrary to other beliefs, he found that

some ……………………. that were included in a story tended to change over time,34

and that the middle of a story seemed no more important than the other parts. He

was also surprised that parts of a story which seemed to provide some sort

of …………………. were unimportant. The aspect that he found most important in 35

a story’s survival was …………………36

A C ending B events warning

D F links E records variations

G horror H people I plot

What method did Jamie Tehrani use to test his ideas about fairy tales?

A. He compared oral and written forms of the same stories.

B. He looked at many different forms of the same basic story.

C. He looked at unrelated stories from many different countries.

D. He contrasted the development of fairy tales with that of living creatures.

When discussing Tehrani’s views, Jack Zipes suggests that

A. Tehrani ignores key changes in the role of women.

B. stories which are too horrific are not always taken seriously.

C. Tehrani overemphasises the importance of violence in stories.

D. features of stories only survive if they have a deeper significance.

Why does Tehrani refer to Chinese and Japanese fairy tales?

A. to indicate that Jack Zipes’ theory is incorrect

B. to suggest that crime is a global problem

C. to imply that all fairy tales have a similar meaning

D. to add more evidence for Jack Zipes’ ideas

What does Mathias Clasen believe about fairy tales?

A. They are a safe way of learning to deal with fear.

B. They are a type of entertainment that some people avoid.

C. They reflect the changing values of our society.

D. They reduce our ability to deal with real-world problems.

Cam IELTS 15 reading test 4

The return of the huarango

The arid valleys of southern Peru are welcoming the return of a native plant

The south coast of Peru is a narrow, 2,000-kilometre-long strip of desert squeezed

between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It is also one of the most fragile

ecosystems on Earth. It hardly ever rains there, and the only year-round source of

water is located tens of metres below the surface. This is why the huarango tree is so

suited to life there: it has the longest roots of any tree in the world. They stretch down

50-80 metres and, as well as sucking up water for the tree, they bring it into the

higher subsoil, creating a water source for other plant life.

Dr David Beresford-Jones, archaeobotanist at Cambridge University, has been

studying the role of the huarango tree in landscape change in the Lower Ica Valley in

southern Peru. He believes the huarango was key to the ancient people’s diet and,

because it could reach deep water sources, it allowed local people to withstand years

of drought when their other crops failed. But over the centuries huarango trees were

gradually replaced with crops. Cutting down native woodland leads to erosion, as

there is nothing to keep the soil in place. So when the huarangos go, the land turns

into a desert. Nothing grows at all in the Lower Ica Valley now.

For centuries the huarango tree was vital to the people of the neighbouring Middle

Ica Valley too. They grew vegetables under it and ate products made from its seed

pods. Its leaves and bark were used for herbal remedies, while its branches were

used for charcoal for cooking and heating, and its trunk was used to build houses.

But now it is disappearing rapidly. The majority of the huarango forests in the valley

have already been cleared for fuel and agriculture – initially, these were

smallholdings, but now they’re huge farms producing crops for the international

market.

‘Of the forests that were here 1,000 years ago, 99 per cent have already gone,’ says

botanist Oliver Whaley from Kew Gardens in London, who, together with

ethnobotanist Dr William Milliken, is running a pioneering project to protect and

restore the rapidly disappearing habitat. In order to succeed, Whaley needs to get the

local people on board, and that has meant overcoming local prejudices. ‘Increasingly

aspirational communities think that if you plant food trees in your home or street, it

shows you are poor, and still need to grow your own food,’ he says. In order to stop

the Middle Ica Valley going the same way as the Lower Ica Valley, Whaley is

encouraging locals to love the huarangos again. ‘It’s a process of cultural

resuscitation,’ he says. He has already set up a huarango festival to reinstate a

sense of pride in their eco-heritage, and has helped local schoolchildren plant

thousands of trees.

‘In order to get people interested in habitat restoration, you need to plant a tree that is

useful to them,’ says Whaley. So, he has been working with local families to attempt

to create a sustainable income from the huarangos by turning their products into

foodstuffs. ‘Boil up the beans and you get this thick brown syrup like molasses. You

can also use it in drinks, soups or stews.’ The pods can be ground into flour to make

cakes, and the seeds roasted into a sweet, chocolatey ‘coffee’. ‘It’s packed full of

vitamins and minerals,’ Whaley says.

And some farmers are already planting huarangos. Alberto Benevides, owner of Ica

Valley’s only certified organic farm, which Whaley helped set up, has been planting

the tree for 13 years. He produces syrup and flour, and sells these products at an

organic farmers’ market in Lima. His farm is relatively small and doesn’t yet provide

him with enough to live on, but he hopes this will change. ‘The organic market is

growing rapidly in Peru,’ Benevides says. ‘I am investing in the future.’

But even if Whaley can convince the local people to fall in love with the huarango

again, there is still the threat of the larger farms. Some of these cut across the forests

and break up the corridors that allow the essential movement of mammals, birds and

pollen up and down the narrow forest strip. In the hope of counteracting this, he’s

persuading farmers to let him plant forest corridors on their land. He believes the

extra woodland will also benefit the farms by reducing their water usage through a

lowering of evaporation and providing a refuge for bio-control insects.

‘If we can record biodiversity and see how it all works, then we’re in a good position

to move on from there. Desert habitats can reduce down to very little,’ Whaley

explains. ‘It’s not like a rainforest that needs to have this huge expanse. Life has

always been confined to corridors and islands here. If you just have a few trees left,

the population can grow up quickly because it’s used to exploiting water when it

arrives.’ He sees his project as a model that has the potential to be rolled out across

other arid areas around the world. ‘If we can do it here, in the most fragile system on

Earth, then that’s a real message of hope for lots of places, including Africa, where

there is drought and they just can’t afford to wait for rain.’

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The importance of the huarango tree

– its roots can extend as far as 80 metres into the soil

– can access ………………… deep below the surface1

– was a crucial part of local inhabitants’ ………………… a long time ago2

– helped people to survive periods of 3…………………..

– prevents ………………… of the soil4

– prevents land from becoming a …………………5

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

Traditional uses of the huarango tree

Part of tree Traditional use

6……………….. Fuel

7………………. and

……………….

Medicine

8……………… construction

Local families have told Whaley about some traditional uses of huarango products.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Farmer Alberto Benevides is now making a good profit from growing huarangos.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Whaley needs the co-operation of farmers to help preserve the area’s wildlife.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

For Whaley’s project to succeed, it needs to be extended over a very large area.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Whaley has plans to go to Africa to set up a similar project.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Silbo Gomero – the whistle ‘language’ of the Canary

Islands

La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the

northwest coast of Africa. This small volcanic island is mountainous, with steep rocky

slopes and deep, wooded ravines, rising to 1,487 metres at its highest peak. It is also

home to the best known of the world’s whistle ‘languages’, a means of transmitting

information over long distances which is perfectly adapted to the extreme terrain of

the island.

This ‘language’, known as ‘Silbo’ or ‘Silbo Gomero’ – from the Spanish word for

‘whistle’ – is now shedding light on the language-processing abilities of the human

brain, according to scientists. Researchers say that Silbo activates parts of the brain

normally associated with spoken language, suggesting that the brain is remarkably

flexible in its ability to interpret sounds as language.

‘Science has developed the idea of brain areas that are dedicated to language, and

we are starting to understand the scope of signals that can be recognised as

language,’ says David Corina, co-author of a recent study and associate professor of

psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Silbo is a substitute for Spanish, with individual words recoded into whistles which

have high- and low-frequency tones. A whistler – or – puts a finger in his or silbador

her mouth to increase the whistle’s pitch, while the other hand can be cupped to

adjust the direction of the sound. ‘There is much more ambiguity in the whistled

signal than in the spoken signal,’ explains lead researcher Manuel Carreiras,

psychology professor at the University of La Laguna on the Canary island of Tenerife.

Because whistled ‘words’ can be hard to distinguish, silbadores rely on repetition, as

well as awareness of context, to make themselves understood.

The silbadores of Gomera are traditionally shepherds and other isolated mountain

folk, and their novel means of staying in touch allows them to communicate over

distances of up to 10 kilometres. Carreiras explains that silbadores are able to pass a

surprising amount of information via their whistles. ‘In daily life they use whistles to

communicate short commands, but any Spanish sentence could be whistled.’ Silbo

has proved particularly useful when fires have occurred on the island and rapid

communication across large areas has been vital.

The study team used neuroimaging equipment to contrast the brain activity of

silbadores while listening to whistled and spoken Spanish. Results showed the left

temporal lobe of the brain, which is usually associated with spoken language, was

engaged during the processing of Silbo. The researchers found that other key

regions in the brain’s frontal lobe also responded to the whistles, including those

activated in response to sign language among deaf people. When the experiments

were repeated with non-whistlers, however, activation was observed in all areas of

the brain.

‘Our results provide more evidence about the flexibility of human capacity for

language in a variety of forms,’ Corina says. ‘These data suggest that left-

hemisphere language regions are uniquely adapted for communicative purposes,

independent of the modality of signal. The non-Silbo speakers were not recognising

Silbo as a language. They had nothing to grab onto, so multiple areas of their brains

were activated.’

Carreiras says the origins of Silbo Gomero remain obscure, but that indigenous

Canary Islanders, who were of North African origin, already had a whistled language

when Spain conquered the volcanic islands in the 15th century. Whistled languages

survive today in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Vietnam, Guyana, China, Nepal,

Senegal, and a few mountainous pockets in southern Europe. There are thought to

be as many as 70 whistled languages still in use, though only 12 have been

described and studied scientifically. This form of communication is an adaptation

found among cultures where people are often isolated from each other, according to

Julien Meyer, a researcher at the Institute of Human Sciences in Lyon, France. ‘They

are mostly used in mountains or dense forests,’ he says. ‘Whistled languages are

quite clearly defined and represent an original adaptation of the spoken language for

the needs of isolated human groups.’

But with modern communication technology now widely available, researchers say

whistled languages like Silbo are threatened with extinction. With dwindling numbers

of Gomera islanders still fluent in the language, Canaries’ authorities are taking steps

to try to ensure its survival. Since 1999, Silbo Gomero has been taught in all of the

island’s elementary schools. In addition, locals are seeking assistance from the

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ‘The

local authorities are trying to get an award from the organisation to declare [Silbo

Gomero] as something that should be preserved for humanity,’ Carreiras adds.

La Gomera is the most mountainous of all the Canary Islands.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Silbo is only appropriate for short and simple messages.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

In the brain-activity study, silbadores and non-whistlers produced different results.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The Spanish introduced Silbo to the islands in the 15th century.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There is precise data available regarding all of the whistle languages in existence

today.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The children of Gomera now learn Silbo.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Silbo Gomero

How Silbo is produced

● high- and low-frequency tones represent different sounds in

Spanish ……………20

● pitch of whistle is controlled using silbador’s ……………21

● 22………….. is changed with a cupped hand

How Silbo is used

● has long been used by shepherds and people living in secluded locations

● in everyday use for the transmission of brief ……………23

● can relay essential information quickly, e.g. to inform people about ……………24

The future of Silbo

● future under threat because of new ……………25

● Canaries’ authorities hoping to receive a UNESCO ……………. to help 26

preserve it

Environmental practices of big businesses

The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that

for many of us offend our sense of justice. Depending on the circumstances, a

business may maximize the amount of money it makes, at least in the short term, by

damaging the environment and hurting people. That is still the case today for

fishermen in an unmanaged fishery without quotas, and for international logging

companies with short-term leases on tropical rainforest land in places with corrupt

officials and unsophisticated landowners. When government regulation is effective,

and when the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses

may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government

regulation is ineffective and if the public doesn’t care.

It is easy for the rest of us to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other

people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that

businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and that publicly owned

companies with shareholders are under obligation to those shareholders to maximize

profits, provided that they do so by legal means. US laws make a company’s

directors legally liable for something termed ‘breach of fiduciary responsibility’ if they

knowingly manage a company in a way that reduces profits. The car manufacturer

Henry Ford was in fact successfully sued by shareholders in 1919 for raising the

minimum wage of his workers to $5 per day: the courts declared that, while Ford’s

humanitarian sentiments about his employees were nice, his business existed to

make profits for its stockholders.

Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for

creating the condition that let a business profit through destructive environmental

policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that

has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make

sustainable environmental policies profitable.

The public can do that by suing businesses for harming them, as happened after the

Exxon Valdez disaster, in which over 40,000m of oil were spilled off the coast of

Alaska. The public may also make their opinion felt by preferring to buy sustainably

harvested products; by making employees of companies with poor track records feel

ashamed of their company and complain to their own management; by preferring

their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good

environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce

laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.

In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might

ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became

concerned about the spread of a disease known as BSE, which was transmitted to

humans through infected meat, the US government’s Food and Drug Administration

introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated

with the risk of the disease spreading. But for five years the meat packers refused to

follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a

major fast-food company then made the same demands after customer purchases of

its hamburgers plummeted, the meat industry complied within weeks. The public’s

task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public

pressure: for instance, fast-food chains or jewelry stores, but not meat packers or

gold miners.

Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate

responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also

believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to

cover the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices. My views may seem

to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles

even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that,

throughout human history, in all politically complex human societies, government

regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral

principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.

To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior

of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than

disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong,

admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. In the past, businesses have changed

when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses

for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses

practicing behaviors that the public didn’t want. I predict that in the future, just as in

the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses’

environmental practices..

Big businesses

Many big businesses today are prepared to harm people and the environment in

order to make money, and they appear to have no ………………. . Lack 27

of ……………….. by governments and lack of public ………………. can lead to 28 29

environmental problems such as ……………….. or the destruction 30

of ……………….31

A funding B trees C rare species

D moral standards E control involvementF

G flooding H overfishing I worker support

The main idea of the third paragraph is that environmental damage

A. requires political action if it is to be stopped.

B. is the result of ignorance on the part of the public.

C. could be prevented by the action of ordinary people.

D. can only be stopped by educating business leaders.

In the fourth paragraph, the writer describes ways in which the public can

A. reduce their own individual impact on the environment.

B. learn more about the impact of business of the environment.

C. raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters.

D. influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments.

What pressure was exerted by big business in the case of the disease BSE?

A. Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains.

B. A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law.

C. Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses.

D. A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce legislation.

The public should be prepared to fund good environmental practices.

YES

NOT GIVEN

There is a contrast between the moral principles of different businesses.

YES

NOT GIVEN

It is important to make a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable

behaviour.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The public have successfully influenced businesses in the past.

YES

NOT GIVEN

In the future, businesses will show more concern for the environment.

YES

NOT GIVEN

What would be the best subheading for this passage?

A. Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses?

B. How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit?

C. What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses?

D. Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause the environment?

Cam IELTS 16 reading test 1

Why we need to protect polar bears

Polar bears are being increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change, but

their disappearance could have far-reaching consequences. They are uniquely

adapted to the extreme conditions of the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can reach

—40°C. One reason for this is that they have up to 11 centimetres of fat underneath

their skin. Humans with comparative levels of adipose tissue would be considered

obese and would be likely to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. Yet the polar

bear experiences no such consequences.

A 2014 study by Shi Ping Liu and colleagues sheds light on this mystery. They

compared the genetic structure of polar bears with that of their closest relatives from

a warmer climate, the brown bears. This allowed them to determine the genes that

have allowed polar bears to survive in one of the toughest environments on Earth.

Liu and his colleagues found the polar bears had a gene known as APoB, which

reduces levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) — a form of ‘bad’ cholesterol. In

humans, mutations of this gene are associated with increased risk of heart disease.

Polar bears may therefore be an important study model to understand heart disease

in humans.

The genome of the polar bear may also provide the solution for another condition,

one that particularly affects our older generation: osteoporosis. This is a disease

where bones show reduced density, usually caused by insufficient exercise, reduced

calcium intake or food starvation. Bone tissue is constantly being remodelled,

meaning that bone is added or removed, depending on nutrient availability and the

stress that the bone is under. Female polar bears, however, undergo extreme

conditions during every pregnancy. Once autumn comes around, these females will

dig maternity dens in the snow and will remain there throughout the winter, both

before and after the birth of their cubs. This process results in about six months of

fasting, where the female bears have to keep themselves and their cubs alive,

depleting their own calcium and calorie reserves. Despite this, their bones remain

strong and dense.

Physiologists Alanda Lennox and Allen Goodship found an explanation for this

paradox in 2008. They discovered that pregnant bears were able to increase the

density of their bones before they started to build their dens. In addition, six months

later, when they finally emerged from the den with their cubs, there was no evidence

of significant loss of bone density. Hibernating brown bears do not have this capacity

and must therefore resort to major bone reformation in the following spring. If the

mechanism of bone remodelling in polar bears can be understood, many bedridden

humans, and even astronauts, could potentially benefit.

The medical benefits of the polar bear for humanity certainly have their importance in

our conservation efforts, but these should not be the only factors taken into

consideration. We tend to want to protect animals we think are intelligent and

possess emotions, such as elephants and primates. Bears, on the other hand, seem

to be perceived as stupid and in many cases violent. And yet anecdotal evidence

from the field challenges those assumptions, suggesting for example that polar bears

have good problem-solving abilities. A male bear called GoGo in Tennoji Zoo, Osaka,

has even been observed making use of a tool to manipulate his environment. The

bear used a tree branch on multiple occasions to dislodge a piece of meat hung out

of his reach. Problem-solving ability has also been witnessed in wild polar bears,

although not as obviously as with GoGo. A calculated move by a male bear involved

running and jumping onto barrels in an attempt to get to a photographer standing on

a platform four metres high.

In other studies, such as one by Alison Annes in 2008, polar bears showed deliberate

and focussed manipulation. For example, Annes observed bears putting objects in

piles and then knocking them over in what appeared to be a game. The study

demonstrates that bears are capable of agile and thought-out behaviours. These

examples suggest bears have greater creativity and problem-solving abilities than

previously thought.

As for emotions while the evidence is once again anecdotal, many bears have been

seen to hit out at ice and snow — seemingly out of frustration — when they have just

missed out on a kill. Moreover, polar bears can form unusual relationships with other

species, including playing with the dogs used to pull sleds in the Arctic. Remarkably,

one hand-raised polar bear called Agee has formed a close relationship with her

owner Mark Dumas to the point where they even swim together. This is even more

astonishing since polar bears are known to actively hunt humans in the wild.

If climate change were to lead to their extinction, this would mean not only the loss of

potential breakthroughs in human medicine, but more importantly, the disappearance

of an intelligent, majestic animal.

Polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the build-up of fat under their

skin.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The study done by Liu and his colleagues compared different groups of polar bears.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Liu and colleagues were the first researchers to compare polar bears and brown

bears genetically.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Polar bears are able to control their levels of bad cholesterol by genetic means.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Female polar bears are able to survive for about six months without food.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

It was found that the bones of female polar bears were very weak when they came

out of their dens in spring.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The polar bear’s mechanism for increasing bone density could also be used by

people one day.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Complete the table below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Reasons why polar bears should be protected

People think of bears as unintelligent

and ………………………….(8)

However, this may not be true. For example:

� In Tennoji Zoo, a bear has been seen using a branch

as a …………………………. This allowed him to (9)

knock down some ………………………….(10)

� A wild polar bear worked out a method of reaching a

platform where a (11) …………………………. was

located.

� Polar bears have displayed behaviour such as

conscious manipulation of objects and activity similar

to a ………………………….(12)

Bears may also display emotions. For example:

� They may make movements

suggesting …………………………. if (13)

disappointed when hunting.

� They may form relationships with other species

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

The pyramids are the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt and still hold

enormous interest for people in the present day. These grand, impressive tributes to

the memory of the Egyptian kings have become linked with the country even though

other cultures, such as the Chinese and Mayan, also built pyramids. The evolution of

the pyramid form has been written and argued about for centuries. However, there is

no question that, as far as Egypt is concerned, it began with one monument to one

king designed by one brilliant architect: .the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara

Djoser was the first king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt and the first to build in stone.

Prior to Djoser’s reign, tombs were rectangular monuments made of dried clay brick,

which covered underground passages where the deceased person was buried. For

reasons which remain unclear, Djoser’s main official, whose name was Imhotep,

conceived of building a taller, more impressive tomb for his king by stacking stone

slabs on top of one another, progressively making them smaller, to form the shape

now known as the Step Pyramid. Djoser is thought to have reigned for 19 years, but

some historians and scholars attribute a much longer time for his rule, owing to the

number and size of the monuments he built.

The Step Pyramid has been thoroughly examined and investigated over the last

century, and it is now known that the building process went through many different

stages. Historian Marc Van de Mieroop comments on this, writing ‘Much

experimentation was involved, which is especially clear in the construction of the

pyramid in the center of the complex. It had several plans … before it became the

first Step Pyramid in history, piling six levels on top of one another … The weight of

the enormous mass was a challenge for the builders, who placed the stones at an

inward incline in order to prevent the monument breaking up.’

When finally completed, the Step Pyramid rose 62 meters high and was the tallest

structure of its time. The complex in which it was built was the size of a city in ancient

Egypt and included a temple, courtyards, shrines, and living quarters for the priests.

It covered a region of 16 hectares and was surrounded by a wall 10.5 meters high.

The wall had 13 false doors cut into it with only one true entrance cut into the south-

east corner; the entire wall was then ringed by a trench 750 meters long and 40

meters wide. The false doors and the trench were incorporated into the complex to

discourage unwanted visitors. If someone wished to enter, he or she would have

needed to know in advance how to find the location of the true opening in the wall.

Djoser was so proud of his accomplishment that he broke the tradition of having only

his own name on the monument and had Imhotep’s name carved on it as well.

The burial chamber of the tomb, where the king’s body was laid to rest, was dug

beneath the base of the pyramid, surrounded by a vast maze of long tunnels that had

rooms off them to discourage robbers. One of the most mysterious discoveries found

inside the pyramid was a large number of stone vessels. Over 40,000 of these

vessels, of various forms and shapes, were discovered in storerooms of the

pyramid’s underground passages. They are inscribed with the names of rulers from

the First and Second Dynasties of Egypt and made from different kinds of stone.

There is no agreement among scholars and archaeologists on why the vessels were

placed in the tomb of Djoser or what they were supposed to represent. The

archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer, who excavated most of the pyramid and complex,

believes they were originally stored and then given a ‘proper burial’ by Djoser in his

pyramid to honor his predecessors. There are other historians, however, who claim

the vessels were dumped into the shafts as yet another attempt to prevent grave

robbers from getting to the king’s burial chamber.

Unfortunately, all of the precautions and intricate design of the underground network

did not prevent ancient robbers from finding a way in. Djoser’s grave goods, and

even his body, were stolen at some point in the past and all archaeologists found

were a small number of his valuables overlooked by the thieves. There was enough

left throughout the pyramid and its complex, however, to astonish and amaze the

archaeologists who excavated it.

Egyptologist Miroslav Verner writes, ‘Few monuments hold a place in human history

as significant as that of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara … It can be said without

exaggeration that this pyramid complex constitutes a milestone in the evolution of

monumental stone architecture in Egypt and in the world as a whole.’ The Step

Pyramid was a revolutionary advance in architecture and became the archetype

which all the other great pyramid builders of Egypt would follow.

List of Headings

i. The areas and artefacts within the pyramid itself

ii. A difficult task for those involved

iii. A king who saved his people

iv. A single certainty among other less definite facts

v. An overview of the external buildings and areas

vi. A pyramid design that others copied

vii. An idea for changing the design of burial structures

viii. An incredible experience despite the few remains

ix. The answers to some unexpected questions

Paragraph A

Paragraph B

Paragraph C

Paragraph D

Paragraph E

Paragraph F

Paragraph G

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet.21-24

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

The complex that includes the Step Pyramid and its

surroundings is considered to be as big as an

Egyptian …………………………. of the past. (21)

The area outside the pyramid included accommodation

that was occupied by …………………………. (22)

along with many other buildings and features.

A wall ran around the outside of the complex and a

number of false entrances were built into this. In

addition, a long …………………………. (23)

encircled the wall. As a result, any visitors who had not

been invited were cleverly prevented from entering the

pyramid grounds unless they knew

the …………………………. of the real entrance.(24)

Which TWO of the following points does the writer make about King Djoser?

A. Initially he had to be persuaded to build in stone rather than clay.

B. There is disagreement concerning the length of his reign.

C. He failed to appreciate Imhotep’s part in the design of Step Pyramid.

D. A few of his possessions were still in his tomb when archaeologists found it.

E. He criticised the design and construction of other pyramids in Egypt.

The future of work

According to a leading business consultancy, 3—14% of the global workforce will

need to switch to a different occupation within the next 10—15 years, and all workers

will need to adapt as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable

machines. Automation — or ‘embodied artificial intelligence (AI) — is one aspect of

the disruptive effects of technology on the labour market. ‘Disembodied AI’, like the

algorithms running in our smartphones, is another.

Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the

most fundamental changes are happening as a result of the ‘ ’ of algorithmication

jobs that are dependent on data rather than on production — the so-called

knowledge economy. Algorithms are capable of learning from data to undertake tasks

that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing

medical scans and gathering market intelligence.

‘In many cases, they can outperform humans,’ says Pachidi. ‘Organisations are

attracted to using algorithms because they want to make choices based on what they

consider is “perfect information”, as well as to reduce costs and enhance

productivity.’

‘But these enhancements are not without consequences,’ says Pachidi. ‘If routine

cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future

experts?’ she asks. ‘One way of learning about a job is “legitimate peripheral

participation”— a novice stands next to experts and learns by observation. If this isn’t

happening, then you need to find new ways to learn.’

Another issue is the extent to which the technology influences or even controls the

workforce. For over two years, Pachidi monitored a telecommunications company.

‘The way telecoms salespeople work is through personal and frequent contact with

clients, using the benefit of experience to assess a situation and reach a decision.

However, the company had started using a[n] … algorithm that defined when account

managers should contact certain customers about which kinds of campaigns and

what to offer them.’

The algorithm — usually built by external designers — often becomes the keeper of

knowledge, she explains. In cases like this, Pachidi believes, a short-sighted view

begins to creep into working practices whereby workers learn through the ‘algorithm’s

eyes’ and become dependent on its instructions. Alternative explorations — where

experimentation and human instinct lead to progress and new ideas — are effectively

discouraged.

Pachidi and colleagues even observed people developing strategies to make the

algorithm work to their own advantage. ‘We are seeing cases where workers feed the

algorithm with false data to reach their targets,’ she reports.

It’s scenarios like these that many researchers are working to avoid. Their objective

is to make AI technologies more trustworthy and transparent, so that organisations

and individuals understand how AI decisions are made. In the meantime, says

Pachidi, ‘We need to make sure we fully understand the dilemmas that this new world

raises regarding expertise, occupational boundaries and control.’

Economist Professor Hamish Low believes that the future of work will involve major

transitions across the whole life course for everyone: ‘The traditional trajectory of full-

time education followed by full-time work followed by a pensioned retirement is a

thing of the past,’ says Low. Instead, he envisages a multistage employment life: one

where retraining happens across the life course, and where multiple jobs and no job

happen by choice at different stages.

On the subject of job losses, Low believes the predictions are founded on a fallacy: ‘It

assumes that the number of jobs is fixed. If in 30 years, half of 100 jobs are being

carried out by robots, that doesn’t mean we are left with just 50 jobs for humans. The

number of jobs will increase: we would expect there to be 150 jobs.’

Dr Ewan McGaughey, at Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research and King’s

College London, agrees that ‘apocalyptic’ views about the future of work are

misguided. ‘It’s the laws that restrict the supply of capital to the job market, not the

advent of new technologies that causes unemployment.’

His recently published research answers the question of whether automation, AI and

robotics will mean a ‘jobless future’ by looking at the causes of unemployment.

‘History is clear that change can mean redundancies. But social policies can tackle

this through retraining and redeployment.’

He adds: ‘If there is going to be change to jobs as a result of AI and robotics then I’d

like to see governments seizing the opportunity to improve policy to enforce good job

security. We can “reprogramme” the law to prepare for a fairer future of work and

leisure.’ McGaughey’s findings are a call to arms to leaders of organisations,

governments and banks to pre-empt the coming changes with bold new policies that

guarantee full employment, fair incomes and a thriving economic democracy.

‘The promises of these new technologies are astounding. They deliver humankind

the capacity to live in a way that nobody could have once imagined,’ he adds. 'Just as

the industrial revolution brought people past subsistence agriculture, and the

corporate revolution enabled mass production, a third revolution has been

pronounced. But it will not only be one of technology. The next revolution will be

social.'

The first paragraph tells us about…

A. the kind of jobs that will be most affected by the growth of AI.

B. the extent to which AI will alter the nature of the work that people do.

C. the proportion of the world’s labour force who will have jobs in AI in the future.

D. the difference between ways that embodied and disembodied AI will impact on

workers.

According to the second paragraph, what is Stella Pachidi’s view of the ’knowledge

economy’?

A. It is having an influence on the number of jobs available.

B. It is changing people’s attitudes towards their occupations.

C. It is the main reason why the production sector is declining.

D. It is a key factor driving current developments in the workplace.

What did Pachidi observe at the telecommunications company?

A. staff disagreeing with the recommendations of AI

B. staff feeling resentful about the intrusion of Al in their work

C. staff making sure that AI produces the results that they want

D. staff allowing AI to carry out tasks they ought to do themselves

In his recently published research, Ewan McGaughey…

A. challenges the idea that redundancy is a negative thing.

B. shows the profound effect of mass unemployment on society.

C. highlights some differences between past and future job losses.

D. illustrates how changes in the job market can be successfully handled.

A. pressure

B. satisfaction

C. intuition

D. promotion

E. reliance

F. confidence

G. information

The ‘algorithimication’ of jobs

Stella Pachidi of Cambridge Judge Business School has

been focusing on the of jobs which algorithmication

rely not on production but

on …………………………. .(31)

While monitoring a telecommunications company,

Pachidi observed a

growing …………………………. on the (32)

recommendations made by AI, as workers begin to

learn through the algorithm’s eyes. Meanwhile, staff

are deterred from experiencing and using their own

(33) …………………………. , and are therefore

prevented from achieving innovation.

To avoid the kind of situations which Pachidi observed,

researchers are trying to make AI’s decision-making

process easier to comprehend, and to increase

user’s …………………………. with regard to the(34)

technology.

List of people

A. Stella Pachidi

B. Hamish Low

C. Ewan McGaughey

Greater levels of automation will not result in lower employment.

There are several reasons why AI is appealing to businesses.

AI’s potential to transform people’s lives has parallels with major cultural shifts which

occurred in previous eras.

It is important to be aware of the range of problems that AI causes.

People are going to follow a less conventional career path than in the past.

Authorities should take measures to ensure that there will be adequately paid work

for everyone.

Cam IELTS 16 reading test 2

The White Horse of Uffington

The cutting of huge figures or into the earth of English hillsides has takengeoglyphs

place for more than 3,000 years. There are 56 hill figures scattered around England,

with the vast majority on the chalk downlands of the country’s southern counties. The

figures include giants, horses, crosses and regimental badges. Although the majority

of these geoglyphs date within the last 300 years or so, there are one or two that are

much older.

The most famous of these figures is perhaps also the most mysterious — the

Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. The White Horse has recently been re-dated

and shown to be even older than its previously assigned ancient pre-Roman Iron

Age date. More controversial is the date of the enigmatic Long Man of Wilmington in

Sussex. While many historians are convinced the figure is prehistoric, others believe

that it was the work of an artistic monk from a nearby priory and was created

between the 11th and 15th centuries.

The method of cutting these huge figures was simply to remove the overlying grass

to reveal the gleaming white chalk below. However, the grass would soon grow over

the geoglyph again unless it was regularly cleaned or scoured by a fairly large team

of people. One reason that the vast majority of hill figures have disappeared is that

when the traditions associated with the figures faded, people no longer bothered or

remembered to clear away the grass to expose the chalk outline. Furthermore, over

hundreds of years the outlines would sometimes change due to people not always

cutting in exactly the same place, thus creating a different shape to the original

geoglyph. The fact that any ancient hill figures survive at all in England today is

testament to the strength and continuity of local customs and beliefs which, in one

case at least, must stretch back over millennia.

The Uffington White Horse is a unique, stylised representation of a horse consisting

of a long, sleek back, thin disjointed legs, a streaming tail, and a bird-like beaked

head. The elegant creature almost melts into the landscape. The horse is situated 2.5

km from Uffington village on a steep slope close to the Late Bronze Age (c. 7th

century BCE) hillfort of Uffington Castle and below the Ridgeway, a long-distance

Neolithic track.

The Uffington Horse is also surrounded by Bronze Age burial mounds. It is not far

from the Bronze Age cemetery of Lambourn Seven Barrows, which consists of more

than 30 well-preserved burial mounds. The carving has been placed in such a way as

to make it extremely difficult to see from close quarters, and like many geoglyphs is

best appreciated from the air. Nevertheless, there are certain areas of the Vale of the

White Horse, the valley containing and named after the enigmatic creature, from

which an adequate impression may be gained. Indeed on a clear day the carving can

be seen from up to 30 km away.

The earliest evidence of a horse at Uffington is from the 1070s CE when ‘White

Horse Hill’ is mentioned in documents from the nearby Abbey of Abingdon, and the

first reference to the horse itself is soon after, in 1190 CE. However, the carving is

believed to date back much further than that. Due to the similarity of the Uffington

White Horse to the stylised depictions of horses on 1st century BCE coins, it had

been thought that the creature must also date to that period.

However, in 1995 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) testing was carried out

by the Oxford Archaeological Unit on soil from two of the lower layers of the horse’s

body, and from another cut near the base. The result was a date for the horse’s

construction somewhere between 1400 and 600 BCE — in other words, it had a Late

Bronze Age or Early Iron Age origin.

The latter end of this date range would tie the carving of the horse in with occupation

of the nearby Uffington hillfort, indicating that it may represent a tribal emblem

marking the land of the inhabitants of the hillfort. Alternatively, the carving may have

been carried out during a Bronze or Iron Age ritual. Some researchers see the horse

as representing the Celtic horse goddess Epona, who was worshipped as a protector

of horses, and for her associations with fertility. However, the cult of Epona was not

imported from Gaul (France) until around the first century CE. This date is at least six

centuries after the Uffington Horse was probably carved. Nevertheless, the horse had

great ritual and economic significance during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as attested

by its depictions on jewellery and other metal objects. It is possible that the carving

represents a goddess in native mythology, such as Rhiannon, described in later

Welsh mythology as a beautiful woman dressed in gold and riding a white horse.

The fact that geoglyphs can disappear easily, along with their associated rituals and

meaning, indicates that they were never intended to be anything more than

temporary gestures. But this does not lessen their importance. These giant carvings

are a fascinating glimpse into the minds of their creators and how they viewed the

landscape in which they lived.

Most geoglyphs in England are located in a particular area of the country.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There are more geoglyphs in the shape of a horse than any other creature.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

A recent dating of the Uffington White Horse indicates that people were mistaken

about its age.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Historians have come to an agreement about the origins of the Long Man of

Wilmington.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Geoglyphs were created by people placing white chalk on the hillside.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Many geoglyphs in England are no longer visible.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The shape of some geoglyphs has been altered over time.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The fame of the Uffington White Horse is due to its size.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The Uffington White Horse

The location of the Uffington White Horse:

� a distance of 2.5 km from Uffington village

� near an ancient road known as

the ………………………….(9)

� close to an ancient cemetery that has a number of

burial mounds

Dating the Uffington White Horse:

The Uffington White Horse

� first reference to White Horse Hill appears

in …………………………. from the 1070s(10)

� horses shown on coins from the period 100 BCE – 1

BCE are similar in appearance

� according to analysis of the

surrounding (11) …………………………. , the Horse

is Late Bronze age/Early Iron age

Possible reasons for creation of the Uffington White

Horse:

� an emblem to indicate land ownership

� formed part of an ancient ritual

� was a representation of goddess Epona – associated

with protection of horses

and …………………………(12)

� was a representation of a Welsh goddess

called ………………………….(13)

I contain multitudes

Wendy Moore reviews Ed Yong’s book about microbes

Microbes, most of them bacteria, have populated this planet since long before

animal life developed and they will outlive us. Invisible to the naked eye, they are

ubiquitous. They inhabit the soil, air, rocks and water and are present within every

form of life, from seaweed and coral to dogs and humans. And, as Yong explains in

his utterly absorbing and hugely important book, we mess with them at our peril.

Every species has its own colony of microbes, called a , and these ‘microbiome’

microbes vary not only between species but also between individuals and within

different parts of each individual. What is amazing is that while the number of human

cells in the average person is about 30 trillion, the number of microbial ones is higher

— about 39 trillion. At best, Yong informs us, we are only 50 per cent human. Indeed,

some scientists even suggest we should think of each species and its microbes as a

single unit, dubbed a .‘holobiont’

In each human there are microbes that live only in the stomach, the mouth or the

armpit and by and large they do so peacefully. So ‘bad’ microbes are just microbes

out of context. Microbes that sit contentedly in the human gut (where there are more

microbes than there are stars in the galaxy) can become deadly if they find their way

into the bloodstream. These communities are constantly changing too. The right hand

shares just one sixth of its microbes with the left hand. And, of course, we are

surrounded by microbes. Every time we eat, we swallow a million microbes in each

gram of food; we are continually swapping microbes with other humans, pets and the

world at large.

It’s a fascinating topic and Yong, a young British science journalist, is an

extraordinarily adept guide. Writing with lightness and panache, he has a knack of

explaining complex science in terms that are both easy to understand and totally

enthralling. Yong is on a mission. Leading us gently by the hand, he takes us into the

world of microbes — a bizarre, alien planet — in a bid to persuade us to love them as

much as he does. By the end, we do.

For most of human history we had no idea that microbes existed. The first man to see

these extraordinarily potent creatures was a Dutch lens-maker called Antony van

Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s. Using microscopes of his own design that could magnify

up to 270 times, he examined a drop of water from a nearby lake and found it

teeming with tiny creatures he called . It wasn’t until nearly two hundred ‘animalcules’

years later that the research of French biologist Louis Pasteur indicated that some

microbes caused disease. It was Pasteur’s ‘germ theory’ that gave bacteria the poor

image that endures today.

Yong’s book is in many ways a plea for microbial tolerance, pointing out that while

fewer than one hundred species of bacteria bring disease, many thousands more

play a vital role in maintaining our health. The book also acknowledges that our

attitude towards bacteria is not a simple one. We tend to see the dangers posed by

bacteria, yet at the same time we are sold yoghurts and drinks that supposedly

nurture ‘friendly’ bacteria. In reality, says Yong, bacteria should not be viewed as

either friends or foes, villains or heroes. Instead we should realise we have a

symbiotic relationship, that can be mutually beneficial or mutually destructive.

What then do these millions of organisms do? The answer is pretty much everything.

New research is now unravelling the ways in which bacteria aid digestion, regulate

our immune systems, eliminate toxins, produce vitamins, affect our behaviour and

even combat obesity. ‘They actually help us become who we are,’ says Yong. But we

are facing a growing problem. Our obsession with hygiene, our overuse of antibiotics

and our unhealthy, low-fibre diets are disrupting the bacterial balance and may be

responsible for soaring rates of allergies and immune problems, such as

inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The most recent research actually turns accepted norms upside down. For example,

there are studies indicating that the excessive use of household detergents and

antibacterial products actually destroys the microbes that normally keep the more

dangerous germs at bay. Other studies show that keeping a dog as a pet gives

children early exposure to a diverse range of bacteria, which may help protect them

against allergies later.

The readers of Yong’s book must be prepared for a decidedly unglamorous world.

Among the less appealing case studies is one about a fungus that is wiping out entire

populations of frogs and that can be halted by a rare microbial bacterium. Another is

about squid that carry luminescent bacteria that protect them against predators.

However, if you can overcome your distaste for some of the investigations, the

reasons for Yong’s enthusiasm become clear. The microbial world is a place of

wonder. Already, in an attempt to stop mosquitoes spreading dengue fever — a

disease that infects 400 million people a year — mosquitoes are being loaded with a

bacterium to block the disease. In the future, our ability to manipulate microbes

means we could construct buildings with useful microbes built into their walls to fight

off infections. Just imagine a neonatal hospital ward coated in a specially mixed

cocktail of microbes so that babies get the best start in life.

Choose the correct letter- A,B,C or D.

Write your answer in boxes on your reading answer sheet.14-16

What point does the writer make about microbes in the first paragraph?

A. They adapt quickly to their environment.

B. The risk they pose has been exaggerated.

C. They are more plentiful in animal life than plant life.

D. They will continue to exist for longer than the human race.

In the second paragraph, the writer is impressed by the fact that…

A. each species tends to have vastly different microbes.

B. some parts of the body contain relatively few microbes.

C. the average individual has more microbial cells than human ones.

D. scientists have limited understanding of how microbial cells behave.

What is the writer doing in the fifth paragraph?

A. explaining how a discovery was made

B. comparing scientists’ theories about microbes

C. describing confusion among scientists

D. giving details of how microbes cause disease

A. solution

B. partnership

C. destruction

D. exaggeration

E. cleanliness

F. regulations

G. illness

H. nutrition

We should be more tolerant of microbes

Yong’s book argues that we should be more tolerant of

microbes. Many have a beneficial effect, and only a

relatively small number lead

to …………………………. . And although it is (17)

misleading to think of microbes as , we should friendly

also stop thinking of them as the enemy. In fact, we

should accept that our relationship with microbes is

one based on ………………………….(18)

New research shows that microbes have numerous

benefits for humans. Amongst other things, they aid

digestion, remove poisons, produce vitamins and may

even help reduce obesity. However, there is a growing

problem. Our poor …………………………. , our (19)

overuse of antibiotics, and our excessive focus

on …………………………. are upsetting the (20)

bacterial balance and may be contributing to the huge

increase in allergies and immune system problems.

It is possible that using antibacterial products in the home fails to have the desired

effect.

YES

NOT GIVEN

It is a good idea to ensure that children come into contact with as few bacteria as

possible.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Yong’s book contains more case studies than are necessary.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The case study about bacteria that prevent squid from being attacked may have

limited appeal.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Efforts to control dengue fever have been surprisingly successful.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Microbes that reduce the risk of infection have already been put inside the walls of

some hospital wards.

YES

NOT GIVEN

How to make wise decisions

Across cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human

qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical research

examining wisdom suggests that it isn’t an exceptional trait possessed by a small

handful of bearded philosophers after all — in fact, the latest studies suggest that

most of us have the ability to make wise decisions, given the right context.

‘It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful

in shaping wisdom than previously imagined,’ says Associate Professor Igor

Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. ‘Recent empirical

findings from cognitive, developmental, social, and personality psychology

cumulatively suggest that people’s ability to reason wisely varies dramatically across

experiential and situational contexts. Understanding the role of such contextual

factors offers unique insights into understanding wisdom in daily life, as well as how it

can be enhanced and taught.’

It seems that it’s not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and others

lack it, but that our ability to reason wisely depends on a variety of external factors. ‘It

is impossible to characterize thought processes attributed to wisdom without

considering the role of contextual factors,’ explains Grossmann. ‘In other words,

wisdom is not solely an “inner quality” but rather unfolds as a function of situations

people happen to be in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than

others.’

Coming up with a definition of wisdom is challenging, but Grossmann and his

colleagues have identified as part of a framework of wise four key characteristics

reasoning. One is intellectual humility or recognition of the limits of our own

knowledge, and another is appreciation of perspectives wider than the issue at hand.

Sensitivity to the possibility of change in social relations is also key, along with

compromise or integration of different attitudes and beliefs.

Grossmann and his colleagues have also found that one of the most reliable ways to

support wisdom in our own day-to-day decisions is to look at scenarios from a third-

party perspective, as though giving advice to a friend. Research suggests that when

adopting a first-person viewpoint we focus on ‘the focal features of the environment’

and when we adopt a third-person, ‘observer’ viewpoint we reason more broadly and

focus more on interpersonal and moral ideals such as justice and impartiality.

Looking at problems from this more expansive viewpoint appears to foster cognitive

processes related to wise decisions.

What are we to do, then, when confronted with situations like a disagreement with a

spouse or negotiating a contract at work, that require us to take a personal stake?

Grossmann argues that even when we aren’t able to change the situation, we can

still evaluate these experiences from different perspectives.

For example, in one experiment that took place during the peak of a recent economic

recession, graduating college seniors were asked to reflect on their job prospects.

The students were instructed to imagine their career either ‘as if you were a distant

observer’ or ‘before your own eyes as if you were right there’. Participants in the

group assigned to the ‘distant observer’ role displayed more wisdom-related

reasoning (intellectual humility and recognition of change) than did participants in the

control group.

In another study, couples in long-term romantic relationships were instructed to

visualize an unresolved relationship conflict either through the eyes of an outsider or

from their own perspective. Participants then discussed the incident with their partner

for 10 minutes, after which they wrote down their thoughts about it. Couples in the

‘other’s eyes’ condition were significantly more likely to rely on wise reasoning —

recognizing others’ perspectives and searching for a compromise — compared to the

couples in the egocentric condition.

‘Ego-decentering promotes greater focus on others and enables a bigger picture,

conceptual view of the experience, affording recognition of intellectual humility and

change,’ says Grossmann.

We might associate wisdom with intelligence or particular personality traits, but

research shows only a small positive relationship between wise thinking and

crystallized intelligence and the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. ‘It

is remarkable how much people can vary in their wisdom from one situation to the

next, and how much stronger such contextual effects are for understanding the

relationship between wise judgment and its social and affective outcomes as

compared to the generalized “traits”,’ Grossmann explains. ‘That is, knowing how

wisely a person behaves in a given situation is more informative for understanding

their emotions or likelihood to forgive [or] retaliate as compared to knowing whether

the person may be wise “in general”.

What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?

A. Wisdom appears to be unique to the human race.

B. A basic assumption about wisdom may be wrong.

C. Concepts of wisdom may depend on the society we belong to.

D. There is still much to be discovered about the nature of wisdom.

What does Igor Grossmann suggest about the ability to make wise decisions?

A. It can vary greatly from one person to another.

B. Earlier research into it was based on unreliable data.

C. The importance of certain influences on it was underestimated.

D. Various branches of psychology define it according to their own criteria.

According to the third paragraph, Grossmann claims that the level of wisdom an

individual shows…

A. can be greater than they think it is.

B. will be different in different circumstances.

C. may be determined by particular aspects of their personality.

D. should develop over time as a result of their life experiences.

What is described in the fifth paragraph?

A. a difficulty encountered when attempting to reason wisely

B. an example of the type of person who is likely to reason wisely

C. a controversial view about the benefits of reasoning wisely

D. a recommended strategy that can help people to reason wisely

Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet.31-35

A. opinions

B. confidence

C. view

D. modesty

E. problems

F. objectivity

G. fairness

H. experiences

I. range

J. reasons

The characteristics of wise reasoning

Igor Grossman and colleagues have established four

characteristics which enable us to make wise decisions.

It is important to have a certain degree

of …………………………. regarding the extent (31)

of our knowledge, and to take into

account …………………………. which may not (32)

be the same as our own. We should also be able to take

a broad …………………………. of any situation.(33)

Another key characteristic is being aware of the

likelihood of alterations in the way that people relate to

each other.

Grossmann also believes that it is better to regard

scenarios with …………………………. . By (34)

avoiding the first-person perspective, we focus more

on …………………………. and on other moral (35)

ideals, which in turn leads to wiser decision-making.

Students participating in the job prospects experiment could choose one of two

perspectives to take.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Participants in the couples experiment were aware that they were taking part in a

study about wise reasoning.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

In the couples experiment, the length of the couples’ relationship had an impact on

the results.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

In both experiments, the participants who looked at the situation from a more

detached viewpoint tended to make wiser decisions.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Grossmann believes that a person’s wisdom is determined by their intelligence to

only a very limited extent.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Cam IELTS 16 reading test 3

Roman shipbuilding and navigation

Shipbuilding today is based on science and ships are built using computers and

sophisticated tools. Shipbuilding in ancient Rome, however, was more of an art

relying on estimation, inherited techniques and personal experience. The Romans

were not traditionally sailors but mostly land- based people, who learned to build

ships from the people that they conquered, namely the Greeks and the Egyptians.

There are a few surviving written documents that give descriptions and

representations of ancient Roman ships, including the sails and rigging. Excavated

vessels also provide some clues about ancient shipbuilding techniques. Studies of

these have taught us that ancient Roman shipbuilders built the outer hull first, then

proceeded with the frame and the rest of the ship. Planks used to build the outer hull

were initially sewn together. Starting from the 6th century BCE, they were fixed using

a method called mortise and tenon, whereby one plank locked into another without

the need for stitching. Then in the first centuries of the current era, Mediterranean

shipbuilders shifted to another shipbuilding method, still in use today, which consisted

of building the frame first and then proceeding with the hull and the other

components of the ship. This method was more systematic and dramatically

shortened ship construction times. The ancient Romans built large merchant ships

and warships whose size and technology were unequalled until the 16th century CE.

Warships were built to be lightweight and very speedy. They had to be able to sail

near the coast, which is why they had no ballast or excess load and were built with a

long, narrow hull. They did not sink when damaged and often would lie crippled on

the sea’s surface following naval battles. They had a bronze battering ram, which

was used to pierce the timber hulls or break the oars of enemy vessels. Warships

used both wind (sails) and human power (oarsmen) and were therefore very fast.

Eventually, Rome’s navy became the largest and most powerful in the

Mediterranean, and the Romans had control over what they therefore called Mare

Nostrum meaning ‘our sea’.

There were many kinds of warship. The ‘trireme was the dominant warship from the

7th to 4th century BCE. It had rowers in the top, middle and lower levels, and

approximately 50 rowers in each bank. The rowers at the bottom had the most

uncomfortable position as they were under the other rowers and were exposed to the

water entering through the oar-holes. It is worth noting that contrary to popular

perception, rowers were not slaves but mostly Roman citizens enrolled in the military.

The trireme was superseded by larger ships with even more rowers.

Merchant ships were built to transport lots of cargo over long distances and at a

reasonable cost. They had a wider hull, double planting and a solid interior for added

stability. Unlike warships, their V-shaped hull was deep underwater, meaning that

they could not sail too close to the coast. They usually had two huge side rudders

located off the stern and controlled by a small tiller bar connected to a system of

cables. They had from one to three masts with large square sails and a small

triangular sail at the bow. Just like warships, merchant ships used oarsmen, but

coordinating the hundreds of rowers in both types of ship was not an easy task. In

order to assist them, music would be played on an instrument, and oars would then

keep time with this.

The cargo on merchant ships included raw materials (e.g. iron bars, copper, marble

and granite), and agricultural products (e.g. grain from Egypt’s Nile valley). During the

Empire, Rome was a huge city by ancient standards of about one million inhabitants.

Goods from all over the world would come to the city through the port of Pozzuoli

situated west of the bay of Naples in Italy and through the gigantic port of Ostia

situated at the mouth of the Tiber River. Large merchant ships would approach the

destination port and, just like today, be intercepted by a number of towboats that

would drag them to the quay.

The time of travel along the many sailing routes could vary widely. Navigation in

ancient Rome did not rely on sophisticated instruments such as compasses but on

experience, local knowledge and observation of natural phenomena. In conditions of

good visibility, seamen in the Mediterranean often had the mainland or islands in

sight, which greatly facilitated navigation. They sailed by noting their position relative

to a succession of recognisable landmarks. When weather conditions were not good

or where land was no longer visible, Roman mariners estimated directions from the

pole star or, with less accuracy, from the Sun at noon. They also estimated directions

relative to the wind and swell. Overall, shipping in ancient Roman times resembled

shipping today with large vessels regularly crossing the seas and bringing supplies

from their Empire.

The Romans’ shipbuilding skills were passed on to the Greeks and the Egyptians.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Skilled craftsmen were needed for the mortise and tenon method of fixing planks.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The later practice used by Mediterranean shipbuilders involved building the hull

before the frame.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea Mare Nostrum because they dominated

its use.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Most rowers on ships were people from the Roman army.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Warships and Merchant ships

Warships are designed so they

were (6) …………………………. and moved quickly.

They often remained afloat after battles and were able

to sail close to land as they lacked any additional

weight. A battering ram made

of …………………………. was included in the (7)

design for attacking and damaging the timber and oars

of enemy ships. Warships, such as the ‘trireme’, had

rowers on three different …………………………. .(8)

Unlike warships, merchant ships had a

broad …………………………. that lay far below (9)

the surface of the sea. Merchant ships were steered

through the water with the help of large rudders and a

tiller bar. They had both square

and …………………………. sails. On merchant (10)

ships and warships, (11) …………………………. was

used to ensure rowers moved their oars in and out of

the water at the same time.

Quantities of agricultural goods such

as ………………………… were transported by (12)

merchant ships to two main ports in Italy. The ships

were pulled to the shore

by …………………………. . When the weather (13)

was clear and they could see islands or land, sailors

used landmarks that they knew to help them navigate

their route.

Climate change reveals ancient artefacts in Norway’s

glaciers

Well above the treeline in Norway’s highest mountains, ancient fields of ice are

shrinking as Earth’s climate warms. As the ice has vanished, it has been giving up

the treasures it has preserved in cold storage for the last 6,000 years — items such

as ancient arrows and skis from Viking Age* traders. And those artefacts have

provided archaeologists with some surprising insights into how ancient Norwegians

made their livings.

Organic materials like textiles and hides are relatively rare finds at archaeological

sites. This is because unless they’re protected from the microorganisms that cause

decay, they tend not to last long. Extreme cold is one reliable way to keep artefacts

relatively fresh for a few thousand years, but once thawed out, these materials

experience degradation relatively swiftly.

With climate change shrinking ice cover around the world, glacial archaeologists

need to race the clock to find newly revealed artefacts, preserve them, and study

them. If something fragile dries and is windblown it might very soon be lost to

science, or an arrow might be exposed and then covered again by the next snow and

remain well-preserved. The unpredictability means that glacial archaeologists have to

be systematic in their approach to fieldwork.

Over a nine-year period, a team of archaeologists, which included Lars Pilo of

Oppland County Council, Norway, and James Barrett of the McDonald Institute for

Archaeological Research, surveyed patches of ice in Oppland, an area of south-

central Norway that is home to some of the country’s highest mountains. Reindeer

once congregated on these icy patches in the later summer months to escape biting

insects, and from the late Stone Age**, hunters followed. In addition, trade routes

threaded through the mountain passes of Oppland, linking settlements in Norway to

the rest of Europe.

The slow but steady movement of glaciers tends to destroy anything at their bases,

so the team focused on stationary patches of ice, mostly above 1,400 metres. That

ice is found amid fields of frost-weathered boulders, fallen rocks, and exposed

bedrock that for nine months of the year is buried beneath snow.

‘Fieldwork is hard work — hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost

— but very rewarding. You’re rescuing the archaeology, bringing the melting ice to

wider attention, discovering a unique environmental history and really connecting

with the natural environment,’ says Barrett.

At the edges of the contracting ice patches, archaeologists found more than 2,000

artefacts, which formed a material record that ran from 4,000 BCE to the beginnings

of the Renaissance in the 14th century. Many of the artefacts are associated with

hunting. Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often discarded

broken bows rather than take them all the way home. Other items could have been

used by hunters traversing the high mountain passes of Oppland: all-purpose items

like tools, skis, and horse tack.

Barrett’s team radiocarbon-dated 153 of the artefacts and compared those dates to

the timing of major environmental changes in the region — such as periods of cooling

or warming — and major social and economic shifts — such as the growth of farming

settlements and the spread of international trade networks leading up to the Viking

Age. They found that some periods had produced lots of artefacts, which indicates

that people had been pretty active in the mountains during those times. But there

were few or no signs of activity during other periods.

What was surprising, according to Barrett, was the timing of these periods. Oppland’s

mountains present daunting terrain and in periods of extreme cold, glaciers could

block the higher mountain passes and make travel in the upper reaches of the

mountains extremely difficult. Archaeologists assumed people would stick to lower

elevations during a time like the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a short period of deeper-

than-usual cold from about 536-600 CE. But it turned out that hunters kept regularly

venturing into the mountains even when the climate turned cold, based on the

amount of stuff they had apparently dropped there.

‘Remarkably, though, the finds from the ice may have continued through this period,

perhaps suggesting that the importance of mountain hunting increased to

supplement failing agricultural harvests in times of low temperatures,’ says Barrett. A

colder turn in the Scandinavian climate would likely have meant widespread crop

failures, so more people would have depended on hunting to make up for those

losses.

Many of the artefacts Barrett’s team recovered date from the beginning of the Viking

Age, the 700s through to the 900s CE. Trade networks connecting Scandinavia with

Europe and the Middle East were expanding around this time. Although we usually

think of ships when we think of Scandinavian expansion, these recent discoveries

show that plenty of goods travelled on overland routes, like the mountain passes of

Oppland. And growing Norwegian towns, along with export markets, would have

created a booming demand for hides to fight off the cold, as well as antlers to make

useful things like combs. Business must have been good for hunters.

Norway’s mountains are probably still hiding a lot of history — and prehistory — in

remote ice patches. When Barrett’s team looked at the dates for their sample of 153

artefacts, they noticed a gap with almost no artefacts from about 3,800 to 2,200 BCE.

In fact, archaeological finds from that period are rare all over Norway. The

researchers say that could be because many of those artefacts have already

disintegrated or are still frozen in the ice. That means archaeologists could be

extracting some of those artefacts from retreating ice in years to come.

an explanation for weapons being left behind in the mountains

a reference to the physical difficulties involved in an archaeological expedition

an explanation of why less food may have been available

a reference to the possibility of future archaeological discoveries

examples of items that would have been traded

a reference to the pressure archaeologists are under to work quickly

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Interesting finds at an archaeological site

Organic materials such as animal skins and textiles are

not discovered very often at archaeological sites. They

Interesting finds at an archaeological site

have little protection

against (20) …………………………. , which means

that they decay relatively quickly. But this is not

always the case. If temperatures are low enough,

fragile artefacts can be preserved for thousands of

years.

A team of archaeologists have been working in the

mountains in Oppland in Norway to recover artefacts

revealed by shrinking ice cover. In the past, there were

trade routes through these mountains

and …………………………. gathered there in the(21)

summer months to avoid being attacked

by ………………………… on lower ground. The (22)

people who used these mountains left things behind

and it is those objects that are of interest to

archaeologists.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the

discoveries of Barrett’s team?

A. Artefacts found in the higher mountain passes were limited to skiing equipment.

B. Hunters went into the mountains even during periods of extreme cold.

C. The number of artefacts from certain time periods was relatively low.

D. Radiocarbon dating of artefacts produced some unreliable results.

E. More artefacts were found in Oppland than at any other mountain site.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the Viking

Age?

A. Hunters at this time benefited from an increased demand for goods.

B. The beginning of the period saw the greatest growth in the wealth of Vikings.

C. Vikings did not rely on ships alone to transport goods.

D. Norwegian towns at this time attracted traders from around the world.

E. Vikings were primarily interested in their trading links with the Middle East.

Plant ‘thermometer’ triggers springtime growth by

measuring night-time heat

A photoreceptor molecule in plant cells has been found to have a second job

as a thermometer after dark – allowing plants read seasonal temperature to

changes. Scientists say the discovery could help breed crops that are more

resilient to the temperatures expected result from climate changeto .

An international team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge has discovered

that the ‘thermometer’ molecule in plants enables them to develop according to

seasonal temperature changes. Researchers have revealed that molecules

called — used by plants to detect light during the day actually phytochromes

change their function in darkness to become cellular temperature gauges that

measure the heat of the night.

The new findings, published in the journal show that phytochromes control Science,

genetic switches in response to temperature as well as light to dictate plant

development.

At night, these molecules change states, and the pace at which they change is

‘directly proportional to temperature’, say scientists, who compare phytochromes to

mercury in a thermometer. The warmer it is, the faster the molecular change —

stimulating plant growth.

Farmers and gardeners have known for hundreds of years how responsive plants are

to temperature: warm winters cause many trees and flowers to bud early, something

humans have long used to predict weather and harvest times for the coming year.

The latest research pinpoints for the first time a molecular mechanism in plants that

reacts to temperature — often triggering the buds of spring we long to see at the end

of winter.

With weather and temperatures set to become ever more unpredictable due to

climate change, researchers say the discovery that this light-sensing molecule also

functions as the internal thermometer in plant cells could help us breed tougher

crops. ‘It is estimated that agricultural yields will need to double by 2050, but climate

change is a major threat to achieving this. Key crops such as wheat and rice are

sensitive to high temperatures. Thermal stress reduces crop yields by around 10%

for every one degree increase in temperature,’ says lead researcher Dr Philip Wigge

from Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory. ‘Discovering the molecules that allow plants

to sense temperature has the potential to accelerate the breeding of crops resilient to

thermal stress and climate change.’

In their active state, phytochrome molecules bind themselves to DNA to restrict plant

growth. During the day, sunlight activates the molecules, slowing down growth. If a

plant finds itself in shade, phytochromes are quickly inactivated — enabling it to grow

faster to find sunlight again. This is how plants compete to escape each other’s

shade. ‘Light-driven changes to phytochrome activity occur very fast, in less than a

second,’ says Wigge.

At night, however, it’s a different story. Instead of a rapid deactivation following

sundown, the molecules gradually change from their active to inactive state. This is

called ‘dark reversion’. ‘Just as mercury rises in a thermometer, the rate at which

phytochromes revert to their inactive state during the night is a direct measure of

temperature,’ says Wigge.

‘The lower the temperature, the slower the rate at which phytochromes revert to

inactivity, so the molecules spend more time in their active, growth-suppressing state.

This is why plants are slower to grow in winter. Warm temperatures accelerate dark

reversion, so that phytochromes rapidly reach an inactive state and detach

themselves from the plant’s DNA — allowing genes to be expressed and plant growth

to resume.’ Wigge believes phytochrome thermo-sensing evolved at a later stage,

and co-opted the biological network already used for light-based growth during the

downtime of night.

Some plants mainly use day length as an indicator of the season. Other species,

such as daffodils, have considerable temperature sensitivity, and can flower months

in advance during a warm winter. In fact, ie discovery of the dual role of

phytochromes provides the science behind a well-known rhyme long used to predict

the coming season: oak before ash we’ll have a splash, ash before oak we’re in for a

soak.

Wigge explains: ‘Oak trees rely much more on temperature, likely using

phytochromes as thermometers to dictate development, whereas ash trees rely on

measuring day length to determine their seasonal timing. A warmer spring, and

consequently a higher likeliness of a hot summer, will result in oak leafing before ash.

A cold spring will see the opposite. As the British know only too well, a colder

summer is likely to be a rain-soaked one.’

The new findings are the culmination of twelve years of research involving scientists

from Germany, Argentina and the US, as well as the Cambridge team. The work was

done in a model system, using a mustard plant called but Wigge says Arabidopsis,

the phytochrome genes necessary for temperature sensing are found in crop plants

as well. ‘Recent advances in plant genetics now mean that scientists are able to

rapidly identify the genes controlling these processes in crop plants, and even alter

their activity using precise molecular “scalpels”,’ adds Wigge. ‘Cambridge is uniquely

well-positioned to do this kind of research as we have outstanding collaborators

nearby who work on more applied aspects of plant biology, and can help us transfer

this new knowledge into the field.’

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading

Passage 1?

The Cambridge scientists’ discovery of the ‘thermometer molecule’ caused surprise

among other scientists.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The target for agricultural production by 2050 could be missed.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Wheat and rice suffer from a rise in temperatures.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

It may be possible to develop crops that require less water.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Plants grow faster in sunlight than in shade.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Phytochromes change their state at the same speed day and night.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose the correct letter, A-H.

mentions of specialists who can make use of the research findings

a reference to a potential benefit of the research findings

scientific support for a traditional saying

a reference to people traditionally making plans based on plant behaviour

a reference to where the research has been reported

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

Daffodils are likely to flower early in response to …………………………….. weather.

If ash trees come into leaf before oak trees, the weather in ……………………………..

will probably be wet.

The research was carried out using a particular species of

…………………………….. .

Cam IELTS 16 reading test 4

Roman tunnels

The Romans, who once controlled areas of Europe, North Africa and Asia

Minor, adopted the construction techniques of other civilizations to build

tunnels in their territories

The Persians, who lived in present-day Iran, were one of the first civilizations to build

tunnels that provided a reliable supply of water to human settlements in dry areas. In

the early first millennium BCE, they introduced the method of tunnel qanat

construction, which consisted of placing posts over a hill in a straight line, to ensure

that the tunnel kept to its route, and then digging vertical shafts down into the ground

at regular intervals. Underground, workers removed the earth from between the ends

of the shafts, creating a tunnel. The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using

the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work. Once the tunnel was

completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal,

which supplied water for human use. Remarkably, some built by the Persians qanats

2,700 years ago are still in use today.

They later passed on their knowledge to the Romans, who also used

the method to construct water-supply tunnels for agriculture. qanat

Roman tunnels were constructed with vertical shafts dug at intervals of qanat

between 30 and 60 meters. The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds

to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone

lid. To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod

placed across the top of each shaft and made sure that the weight at the end of it

hung in the center of the shaft. Plumb lines were also used to measure the depth of

the shaft and to determine the slope of the tunnel. The 5.6 kilometer Long Claudius

tunnel, built in 41 CE to drain the Fucine Lake in central Italy, had shafts that were up

to 122 meters deep, took 11 years to build and involved approximately 30,000

workers.

By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called

the counter- excavation method, in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends.

It was used to cut through high mountains when the method was not a qanat

practical alternative. This method required greater planning and advanced knowledge

of surveying, mathematics and geometry as both ends of a tunnel had to meet

correctly at the center of the mountain. Adjustments to the direction of the tunnel also

had to be made whenever builders encountered geological problems or when it

deviated from its set path. They constantly checked the tunnel’s advancing direction.

For example, by looking back at the light that penetrated through the tunnel mouth,

and made corrections whenever necessary. Large deviations could happen, and they

could result in one end of the tunnel not being usable. An inscription written on the

side of a 428-meter tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct

system in modern-day Algeria, describes how the two teams of builders missed each

other in the mountain and how the later construction of a lateral link between both

corridors corrected the initial error.

The Romans dug tunnels for their roads using the counter-excavation method,

whenever they encountered obstacles such as hills or mountains that were too high

for roads to pass over. An example is the 37-meter-long, 6-meter-high, Furlo Pass

Tunnel built in Italy in 69-79 CE. Remarkably, a modern road still uses this tunnel

today. Tunnels were also built for mineral extraction. Miners would locate a mineral

vein and then pursue it with shafts and tunnels underground. Traces of such tunnels

used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales. When the sole

purpose of a tunnel was mineral extraction, construction required less planning, as

the tunnel route was determined by the mineral vein.

Roman tunnel projects were carefully planned and carried out. The length of time it

took to construct a tunnel depended on the method being used and the type of rock

being excavated. The construction method was usually faster than the counter-qanat

excavation method as it was more straightforward. This was because the mountain

could be excavated not only from the tunnel mouths but also from shafts. The type of

rock could also influence construction times. When the rock was hard, the Romans

employed a technique called fire quenching which consisted of heating the rock with

fire, and then suddenly cooling it with cold water so that it would crack.

Progress through hard rock could be very slow, and it was not uncommon for tunnels

to take years, if not decades, to be built. Construction marks left on a Roman tunnel

in Bologna show that the rate of advance through solid rock was 30 centimeters per

day. In contrast, the rate of advance of the Claudius tunnel can be calculated at 1.4

meters per day. Most tunnels had inscriptions showing the names of patrons who

ordered construction and sometimes the name of the architect. For example, the 1.4-

kilometer Cevlik tunnel in Turkey, built to divert the floodwater threatening the harbor

of the ancient city of Seleuceia Pieria, had inscriptions on the entrance, still visible

today, that also indicate that the tunnel was started in 69 CE and was completed in

81 CE.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The counter-excavation method completely replaced the qanat method in the 6th

century BCE

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Only experienced builders were employed to construct a tunnel using the counter-

excavation method.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The information about a problem that occurred during the construction of the Saldae

aqueduct system was found in an ancient book.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The mistake made by the builders of the Saldae aqueduct system was that the two

parts of the tunnel failed to meet.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose from the passage for each answer.NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS

What type of mineral were the Dolaucothi mines in Wales built to extract?

In addition to the patron, whose name might be carved onto a tunnel?

What part of Seleuceia Pieria was the Çevlik tunnel built to protect?

Changes in reading habits

What are the implications of the way we read today?

Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and

toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older kids don’t

read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on

tablets or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Unbeknown to most of us, an

invisible, game-changing transformation links everyone in this picture: the neuronal

circuit that underlies the brain’s ability to read is subtly, rapidly changing and this has

implications for everyone from the pre-reading toddler to the expert adult.

As work in neurosciences indicates, the acquisition of literacy necessitated a new

circuit in our species’ brain more than 6,000 years ago. That circuit evolved from a

very simple mechanism for decoding basic information, like the number of goats in

one’s herd, to the present, highly elaborated reading brain. My research depicts how

the present reading brain enables the development of some of our most important

intellectual and affective processes: internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning,

and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation

of insight. Research surfacing in many parts of the world now cautions that each of

these essential ‘deep reading’ processes may be under threat as we move into

digital- based modes of reading.

This is not a simple, binary issue of print versus digital reading and technological

innovation. As MIT scholar Sherry Turkle has written, we do not err as a society when

we innovate but when we ignore what we disrupt or diminish while innovating. In this

hinge moment between print and digital cultures, society needs to confront what is

diminishing in the expert reading circuit, what our children and older students are not

developing, and what we can do about it.

We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through

a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop.

Further, it will adapt to that environment’s requirements — from different writing

systems to the characteristics of whatever medium is used. If the dominant medium

advantages processes that are fast, multi-task oriented and well-suited for large

volumes of information, like the current digital medium, so will the reading circuit. As

UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield writes, the result is that less attention and time

will be allocated to slower, time-demanding deep reading processes.

Increasing reports from educators and from researchers in psychology and the

humanities bear this out. English literature scholar and teacher Mark Edmundson

describes how many college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19th

and 20th centuries in favour of something simpler as they no longer have the

patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts. We should be less concerned

with students’ , however, than by what may underlie it: the ‘cognitive impatience’

potential inability of large numbers of students to read with a level of critical analysis

sufficient to comprehend the complexity of thought and argument found in more

demanding texts.

Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling

downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college

students. In Stavanger, Norway, psychologist Anne Mangen and her colleagues

studied how high school students comprehend the same material in different

mediums. Mangen’s group asked subjects questions about a short story whose plot

had universal student appeal; half of the students read the story on a tablet, the other

half in paperback. Results indicated that students who read on print were superior in

their comprehension to screen-reading peers, particularly in their ability to sequence

detail and reconstruct the plot in chronological order.

Ziming Liu from San Jose State University has conducted a series of studies which

indicate that the ‘new norm’ in reading is skimming, involving word-spotting and

browsing through the text. Many readers now use a pattern when reading in which

they sample the first line and then word- spot through the rest of the text. When the

reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In

other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s

feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.

The possibility that critical analysis, empathy and other deep reading processes

could become the unintended ‘collateral damage’ of our digital culture is not a

straightforward binary issue about print versus digital reading. It is about how we all

have begun to read on various mediums and how that changes not only what we

read, but also the purposes for which we read. Nor is it only about the young. The

subtle atrophy of critical analysis and empathy affects us all equally. It affects our

ability to navigate a constant bombardment of information. It incentivizes a retreat to

the most familiar stores of unchecked information, which require and receive no

analysis, leaving us susceptible to false information and irrational ideas.

There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a

very hopeful principle when applied to critical thought in the reading brain because it

implies choice. The story of the changing reading brain is hardly finished. We

possess both the science and the technology to identify and redress the changes in

how we read before they become entrenched. If we work to understand exactly what

we will lose, alongside the extraordinary new capacities that the digital world has

brought us, there is as much reason for excitement as caution.

Choose the correct letter , A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet.14-17

What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?

A. Our use of technology is having a hidden effect on us.

B. Technology can be used to help youngsters to read.

C. Travellers should be encouraged to use technology on planes.

D. Playing games is a more popular use of technology than reading.

What main point does Sherry Turkle make about innovation?

A. Technological innovation has led to a reduction in print reading.

B. We should pay attention to what might be lost when innovation occurs.

C. We should encourage more young people to become involved in innovation.

D. There is a difference between developing products and developing ideas.

What point is the writer making in the fourth paragraph?

A. Humans have an inborn ability to read and write.

B. Reading can be done using many different mediums.

C. Writing systems make unexpected demands on the brain.

D. Some brain circuits adjust to whatever is required of them.

According to Mark Edmundson, the attitude of college students…

A. has changed the way he teaches.

B. has influenced what they select to read.

C. does not worry him as much as it does others.

D. does not match the views of the general public.

Write the correct letter, in boxes on your reading answer sheet.A-H, 18-22

A. fast

B. isolated

C. emotional

D. worrying

E. many

F. hard

G. combined

H. thorough

Studies on digital screen use

There have been many studies on digital screen use,

showing some (18) …………………………. trends.

Psychologist Anne Mangen gave high-school students

a short story to read, half using digital and half using

print mediums. Her team then used a question &

answer technique to find out

how …………………………. each group’s (19)

understanding of the plot was. The findings showed a

clear pattern in the responses, with those who read

screens finding the order of

information ………………………… to recall.(20)

Studies by Ziming Liu show that students are tending

to read words and (21) …………………………

Studies on digital screen use

phrases in a text to save time. This approach, she says,

gives the reader a superficial understanding of

the ………………………… content of material, (22)

leaving no time for thought.

The medium we used to read can affect our choice of reading content.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Some age groups are more likely to lose their complex reading skills than others.

YES

NOT GIVEN

False information has become more widespread in today’s digital era.

YES

NOT GIVEN

We still have opportunities to rectify the problems that technology is presenting.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) can already predict the future. Police forces are using it to

map when and where crime is likely to occur. Doctors can use it to predict when a

patient is most likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Researchers are even trying to

give AI imagination so it can plan for unexpected consequences.

Many decisions in our lives require a good forecast, and AI is almost always better at

forecasting than we are. Yet for all these technological advances, we still seem to

deeply lack confidence in Al predictions. Recent cases show that people don’t like

relying on AI and prefer to trust human experts, even if these experts are wrong.

If we want AI to really benefit people, we need to find a way to get people to trust it.

To do that, we need to understand why people are so reluctant to trust AI in the first

place.

Take the case of Watson for Oncology, one of technology giant IBM’s supercomputer

programs. Their attempt to promote this program to cancer doctors was a PR

disaster. The AI promised to deliver top-quality recommendations on the treatment of

12 cancers that accounted for 80% of the world’s eases. But when doctors first

interacted with Watson, they found themselves in a rather difficult situation. On the

one hand, if Watson provided guidance about a treatment that coincided with their

own opinions, physicians did not see much point in Watson’s recommendations. The

supercomputer was simply telling them what they already knew, and these

recommendations did not change the actual treatment.

On the other hand, if Watson generated a recommendation that contradicted the

experts’ opinion, doctors would typically conclude that Watson wasn’t competent. And

the machine wouldn’t be able to explain why its treatment was plausible because its

machine-learning algorithms were simply too complex to be fully understood by

humans. Consequently, this has caused even more suspicion and disbelief, leading

many doctors to ignore the seemingly outlandish AI recommendations and stick to

their own expertise.

This is just one example of people's lack of confidence in AI and their reluctance to

accept what AI has to offer. Trust in other people is often based on our understanding

of how others think and having experience of their reliability. This helps create a

psychological feeling of safety. AI, on the other hand, is still fairly new and unfamiliar

to most people. Even if it can be technically explained (and that’s not always the

case), AI’s decision-making process is usually too difficult for most people to

comprehend. And interacting with something we don’t understand can cause anxiety

and give us a sense that we’re losing control.

Many people are also simply not familiar with many instances of AI actually working,

because it often happens in the background. Instead they are acutely aware of

instances where AI goes wrong. Embarrassing AI failures receive a disproportionate

amount of media attention, emphasising the message that we cannot rely on

technology. Machine learning is not foolproof, in part because the humans who

design it aren’t.

Feelings about AI run deep. In a recent experiment, people from a range of

backgrounds were given various sci-fi films about AI to watch and then asked

questions about automation in everyday life. It was found that, regardless of whether

the film they watched depicted AI in a positive or negative light, simply watching a

cinematic vision of our technological future polarised the participants’ attitudes.

Optimists became more extreme in their enthusiasm for AI and sceptics became

even more guarded.

This suggests people use relevant evidence about AI in a biased manner to support

their existing attitudes, a deep-rooted human tendency known as “confirmation bias”.

As AI is represented more and more in media and entertainment, it could lead to a

society split between those who benefit from AI and those who reject it. More

pertinently, refusing to accept the advantages offered by AI could place a large group

of people at a serious disadvantage.

Fortunately, we already have some ideas about how to improve trust in AI. Simply

having previous experience with AI can significantly improve people’s opinions about

the technology, as was found in the study mentioned above. Evidence also suggests

the more you use other technologies such as the internet, the more you trust them.

Another solution may be to reveal more about the algorithms which AI uses and the

purposes they serve. Several high-profile social media companies and online

marketplaces already release transparency reports about government requests and

surveillance disclosures. A similar practice for AI could help people have a better

understanding of the way algorithmic decisions are made.

Research suggests that allowing people some control over AI decision-making could

also improve trust and enable AI to learn from human experience. For example, one

study showed that when people were allowed the freedom to slightly modify an

algorithm, they felt more satisfied with its decisions, more likely to believe it was

superior and more likely to use it in the future.

We don’t need to understand the intricate inner workings of AI systems, but if people

are given a degree of responsibility for how they are implemented, they will be more

willing to accept AI into their lives.

List of Headings

i. An increasing divergence of attitudes towards AI

ii. Reasons why we have more faith in human

judgement than in AI

iii. The superiority of AI projections over those made

by humans

iv. The process by which AI can help us make good

decisions

v. The advantages of involving users in AI processes

vi. Widespread distrust of an AI innovation

vii. Encouraging openness about how AI functions

viii. A surprisingly successful AI application

Section A

Section B

Section C

Section D

Section E

Section F

What is the writer doing in Section A?

A. providing a solution to a concern

B. justifying an opinion about an issue

C. highlighting the existence of a problem

D. explaining the reasons for a phenomenon

According to Section C, why might some people be reluctant to accept AI?

A. They are afraid it will replace humans in decision-making jobs.

B. Its complexity makes them feel that they are at a disadvantage.

C. They would rather wait for the technology to be tested over a period of time.

D. Misunderstandings about how it works make it seem more challenging than it

is.

What does the writer say about the media in Section C of the text?

A. It leads the public to be mistrustful of Al.

B. It devotes an excessive amount of attention to Al.

C. Its reports of incidents involving AI are often inaccurate.

D. It gives the impression that AI failures are due to designer error.

Subjective depictions of AI in sci-fi films make people change their opinions about

automation.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Portrayals of AI in media and entertainment are likely to become more positive.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Rejection of the possibilities of AI may have a negative effect on many people’s lives.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Familiarity with AI has very little impact on people’s attitudes to the technology.

YES

NOT GIVEN

AI applications which users are able to modify are more likely to gain consumer

approval.

YES

NOT GIVEN

C17 IELTS reading test 1

The development of the London underground railway

In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the

central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the

overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the

capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not

be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was

that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within

consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn

traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to

travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to

resolve these problems, but few succeeded.

Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was

Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both

social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link

the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time.

His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly

constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work.

Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he

submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from

another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.

The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in

August 1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from

the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at

Farringdon Street - a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in

raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the

critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse

under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers

would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and

his partners persisted.

The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the

heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-

year period, £1m was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to

minimise the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be

completed in 21 months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It

was built just below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench

about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily held

up with timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was

added to create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel

and the road above rebuilt.

The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first

underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried

between Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the

end of the Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made.

Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line were being

authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east of

London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with

steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines

were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that

were fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke

and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the

tunnels.

Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on

London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the existing

underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended to the

suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of

construction was not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to

tunnel deep underground.

Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not

be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric

motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that

the world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became

possible. The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the

River Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric

engines. The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof

because it was thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel

walls. The line was not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power

supply. Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical

achievement, it did not make a profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway,

known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’, began operation using new electric locomotives. It

was very popular and soon afterwards new railways and extensions were added to

the growing tube network. By 1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in

place.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The London underground railway

The problem

• The 1..........................................of London increased rapidly between 1800 and

1850

• The streets were full of horse-drawn vehicles

The proposed solution

• Charles Pearson, a solicitor, suggested building an underground railway

• Building the railway would make it possible to move people to better housing in

the 2..........................................

• A number of 3..........................................agreed with Pearson’s idea

• The company initially had problems getting the

4..........................................needed for the project

• Negative articles about the project appeared in the 5..........................................

The construction

• The chosen route did not require many buildings to be pulled down

• The ‘cut and cover’ method was used to construct the tunnels

• With the completion of the brick arch, the tunnel was covered with

6..........................................

Other countries had built underground railways before the Metropolitan line opened.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

More people than predicted travelled on the Metropolitan line on the first day.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The use of ventilation shafts failed to prevent pollution in the tunnels.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

A different approach from the ‘cut and cover’ technique was required in London’s

central area.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The windows on City & South London trains were at eye level.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The City & South London Railway was a financial success.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Trains on the Tuppenny Tube’ nearly always ran on time.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Stadiums: past, present and future

Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the

public could watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back

as the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great

medieval cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th-century railway stations which

dominated urban skylines in later eras.

Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs

can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the

Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair.

But this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban

development and adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and

planners are finding new ways to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which

became emblematic of modernisation during the 20th century.

The amphitheatre* of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000

spectators, is perhaps the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built

by the Romans in 90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century,

and was then transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses. With the

growing interest in conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into

an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use

as a venue for public spectacles.

Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for

30,000 spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40

years before Rome’s famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is

currently considered one of the world’s prime sites for opera, thanks to its

outstanding acoustics.

The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza

dell’Anfiteatro, is yet another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming

absorbed into the fabric of the city. The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was

progressively filled with buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century,

variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison. But rather than reverting to an

arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo

Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops

and residences surrounding the public square.

There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres

intended for games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th

century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and

reinforced concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches.

Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only

and surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as

accessible to the general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban

heat.

But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help

improve the city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular

success: the stadium as an urban hub, and as a power plant.

There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services

that serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres,

restaurants and bars, children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use

developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making

more efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces.

This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of

catering only to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of

this in the UK: the mixed-use facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a

blueprint for many other stadiums in the world.

The phenomenon of stadiums as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy

problems can be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a

smart grid, which is an electricity supply network that uses digital communications

technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, without significant energy

losses. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large

surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 40

metres) to make use of micro wind turbines.

Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as

power plants, which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium.

The latter, inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14

GWh of electricity annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660

tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in

use. This is proof that a stadium can serve its city, and have a decidedly positive

impact in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions.

Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every

era, the stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to

residential village, public space to theatre and most recently a field for

experimentation in advanced engineering. The stadium of today now brings together

multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a sustainable future.

*amphitheatre: (especially in Greek and Roman architecture) an open circular or oval

building with a central space surrounded by tiers of seats for spectators, for the

presentation of dramatic or sporting events

a mention of negative attitudes towards stadium building projects

figures demonstrating the environmental benefits of a certain stadium

examples of the wide range of facilities available at some new stadiums

reference to the disadvantages of the stadiums built during a certain era

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet.

Roman amphitheatres

The Roman stadiums of Europe have proved very versatile. The amphitheatre of

Arles, for example, was converted first into a 18........................................................,

then into a residential area and finally into an arena where spectators could watch

19.........................................................Meanwhile, the arena in Verona, one of the

oldest Roman amphitheatres, is famous today as a venue where

20....................................................... is performed. The site of Lucca’s amphitheatre

has also been used for many purposes over the centuries, including the storage of

21.........................................................It is now a market square with

22........................................................and homes incorporated into the remains of the

Roman amphitheatre.

When comparing twentieth-century stadiums to ancient amphitheatres in Section D,

which TWO negative features does the writer mention?

 A They are less imaginatively designed.

 B They are less spacious.

 C They are in less convenient locations.

 D They are less versatile.

 E They are made of less durable materials.

Which TWO advantages of modern stadium design does the writer mention?

 A offering improved amenities for the enjoyment of sports events

 B bringing community life back into the city environment

 C facilitating research into solar and wind energy solutions

 D enabling local residents to reduce their consumption of electricity

 E providing a suitable site for the installation of renewable power generators

To catch a king

Anna Keay reviews Charles Spencers hook about the hunt for King Charles II during

the English Civil War of the seventeenth century

Charles Spencer’s latest book, To Catch a King, tells us the story of the hunt for King

Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in

September 1651. And what a story it is. After his father was executed by the

Parliamentarians in 1649, the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles

his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots, thereby accepting

Presbyterianism* as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots.

His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland

in a pre-emptive strike. This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England. The two

sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651. After

being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the

Parliamentarian army, the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national

manhunt, with a huge sum offered for his capture. Over the following six weeks he

managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the

Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France. For the next nine years, the

penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of

loyal supporters.

Years later, after his restoration as king, the 50-year-old Charles II requested a

meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys. His intention when asking Pepys to

commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was

never forgotten. Over two three-hour sittings, the king related to him in great detail

his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive. As the king and

secretary settled down (a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter), Charles

commenced his story: ‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of

recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’

One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own

narrative as well as those of his supporters, is just how close the reader gets to the

action. The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives’ doings provides delicious details: the

cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears, the use of walnut leaves to dye

his pale skin, and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in

Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below. Spencer

draws out both the humour - such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend

Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity - and

the emotional tension when the secret of the king’s presence was cautiously revealed

to his supporters.

Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth

that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his

father, they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army, but had

instead firmly bolted their doors. This was partly because he rode at the head of what

looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because, after almost a decade of civil

war, people were desperate to avoid it beginning again. This makes it all the more

interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after. As well as

retelling it to anyone who would listen, causing eye-rolling among courtiers, he set in

train a series of initiatives to memorialise it. There was to be a new order of chivalry,

the Knights of the Royal Oak. A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the

episode were produced, including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a

set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run. In 1660, Charles II

commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs*

carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber. It is hard to

imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically, or

indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.

Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation. His

pacey, readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life

the details of the great tale. He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king

and the fierce republican regime that hunted him, and he succeeds in his desire to

explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject

have done. Indeed, the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found

himself at Worcester in the first place, which for some will be reason alone to read To

Catch a King.

The tantalising question left, in the end, is that of what it all meant. Would Charles II

have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? The days and

nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way. Did the need to assume

disguises, to survive on wit and charm alone, to use trickery and subterfuge to

escape from tight corners help form him? This is the one area where the book

doesn’t quite hit the mark. Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an

ineffective, pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man (neither is it

accurate), or to the complexity of his character. But this one niggle aside, To Catch a

King is an excellent read, and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale

will find they have a treat in store.

*Presbyterianism: part of the reformed Protestant religion

*cherub: an image of angelic children used in paintings

The story behind the hunt for Charles II

Charles II’s father was executed by the Parliamentarian forces in 1649. Charles II

then formed a 27..........................................with the Scots, and in order to become

King of Scots, he abandoned an important 28..........................................that

was held by his father and had contributed to his father’s death. The opposing sides

then met outside Worcester in 1651. The battle led to a

29..........................................for the Parliamentarians and Charles had to flee for his

life. A 30..........................................was offered for Charles’s capture, but after six

weeks spent in hiding, he eventually managed to reach the

31..........................................of continental Europe.

A. military

innovation B. large reward

C. widespread

conspiracy

D. relative

safety

E. new

government

F. decisive victory

G. political

debate

H. strategic

alliance

I. popular solution

J. religious

conviction

Charles chose Pepys for the task because he considered him to be trustworthy.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Charles’s personal recollection of the escape lacked sufficient detail.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Charles indicated to Pepys that he had planned his escape before the battle.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The inclusion of Charles’s account is a positive aspect of the book.

YES

NOT GIVEN

What is the reviewer’s main purpose in the first paragraph?

A. to describe what happened during the Battle of Worcester

B. to give an account of the circumstances leading to Charles II's escape

C. to provide details of the Parliamentarians’ political views

D. to compare Charles II’s beliefs with those of his father

Why does the reviewer include examples of the fugitives’ behaviour in the third

paragraph?

A. to explain how close Charles II came to losing his life

B. to suggest that Charles II’s supporters were badly prepared

C. to illustrate how the events of the six weeks are brought to life

D. to argue that certain aspects are not as well known as they should be

What point does the reviewer make about Charles II in the fourth paragraph?

A. He chose to celebrate what was essentially a defeat.

B. He misunderstood the motives of his opponents.

C. He aimed to restore people’s faith in the monarchy.

D. He was driven by a desire to be popular.

What does the reviewer say about Charles Spencer in the fifth paragraph?

A. His decision to write the book comes as a surprise.

B. He takes an unbiased approach to the subject matter.

C. His descriptions of events would be better if they included more detail.

D. He chooses language that is suitable for a twenty-first-century audience.

When the reviewer says the book ‘doesn’t quite hit the mark’, she is making the point

that

A. it overlooks the impact of events on ordinary people.

B. it lacks an analysis of prevalent views on monarchy.

C. it omits any references to the deceit practised by Charles II during his time in

hiding.

D. it fails to address whether Charles M’s experiences had a lasting influence on him.

C17 IELTS reading test 2

The Dead Sea Scrolls

In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and

sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the

Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of these young shepherds

tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a

shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and stumbled

across a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained scrolls with writing on

them. The teenagers took the seven scrolls to a nearby town where they were sold

for a small sum to a local antiquities dealer. Word of the find spread, and Bedouins

and archaeologists eventually unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll

fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900

manuscripts. It soon became clear that this was one of the greatest archaeological

discoveries ever made.

The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago

between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still the subject of scholarly debate even today.

According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a population that inhabited the

area until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 CE. The area was

known as Judea at that time, and the people are thought to have belonged to a group

called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.

The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some

fragments written in an ancient version of its alphabet thought to have fallen out of

use in the fifth century BCE. But there are other languages as well. Some scrolls are

in Aramaic, the language spoken by many inhabitants of the region from the sixth

century BCE to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In addition, several texts feature

translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the

Bible except for the Book of Esther. The only entire book of the Hebrew Bible

preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first

century BCE, is considered the earliest biblical manuscript still in existence. Along

with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations and

religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.

The writing on the Dead Sea Scrolls is mostly in black or occasionally red ink, and

the scrolls themselves are nearly all made of either parchment (animal skin) or an

early form of paper called ‘papyrus’. The only exception is the scroll numbered 3Q15,

which was created out of a combination of copper and tin. Known as the Copper

Scroll, this curious document features letters chiselled onto metal - perhaps, as some

have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. One of the most intriguing

manuscripts from Qumran, this is a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of

gold and silver caches. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, it

describes 64 underground hiding places that supposedly contain riches buried for

safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the

Romans pillaged Judea during the first century CE. According to various hypotheses,

the treasure belonged to local people, or was rescued from the Second Temple

before its destruction or never existed to begin with.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been on interesting journeys. In 1948, a Syrian

Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven

scrolls from a Jerusalem shoemaker and part-time antiquity dealer, paying less than

$100 for them. He then travelled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered

them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 1954, he placed an

advertisement in the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal - under the

category ‘Miscellaneous Items for Sale’ - that read: ‘Biblical Manuscripts dating back

to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or

religious institution by an individual or group.’ Fortunately, Israeli archaeologist and

statesman Yigael Yadin negotiated their purchase and brought the scrolls back to

Jerusalem, where they remain to this day.

In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the

last untranslated scrolls. The university’s Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov

spent one year reassembling the 60 fragments that make up the scroll. Deciphered

from a band of coded text on parchment, the find provides insight into the community

of people who wrote it and the 364-day calendar they would have used. The scroll

names celebrations that indicate shifts in seasons and details two yearly religious

events known from another Dead Sea Scroll. Only one more known scroll remains

untranslated.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Discovery

Qumran, 1946/7

• three Bedouin shepherds in their teens were near an opening on side of cliff

• heard a noise of breaking when one teenager threw a 1..........................................

• teenagers went into the 2..........................................and

found a number of containers made of 3..........................................

The scrolls

• date from between 150 BCE and 70 CE

• thought to have been written by group of people known as the

4..........................................

• written mainly in the 5..........................................language

• most are on religious topics, written using ink on parchment or papyrus

The Bedouin teenagers who found the scrolls were disappointed by how little money

they received for them.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There is agreement among academics about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Most of the books of the Bible written on the scrolls are incomplete.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The information on the Copper Scroll is written in an unusual way.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Mar Samuel was given some of the scrolls as a gift.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

In the early 1950s, a number of educational establishments in the US were keen to

buy scrolls from Mar Samuel.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The scroll that was pieced together in 2017 contains information about annual

"occasions in the Qumran area 2,000 years ago."

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Academics at the University of Haifa are currently researching how to decipher the

final scroll.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

A second attempt at domesticating the tomato

It took at least 3,000 years for humans to learn how to domesticate the wild tomato

and cultivate it for food. Now two separate teams in Brazil and China have done it all

over again in less than three years. And they have done it better in some ways, as

the re-domesticated tomatoes are more nutritious than the ones we eat at present.

This approach relies on the revolutionary CRISPR genome editing technique, in

which changes are deliberately made to the DNA of a living cell, allowing genetic

material to be added, removed or altered. The technique could not only improve

existing crops, but could also be used to turn thousands of wild plants into useful and

appealing foods. In fact, a third team in the US has already begun to do this with a

relative of the tomato called the groundcherry.

This fast-track domestication could help make the world’s food supply healthier and

far more resistant to diseases, such as the rust fungus devastating wheat crops.

'This could transform what we eat,' says Jorg Kudla at the University of Munster in

Germany, a member of the Brazilian team. 'There are 50,000 edible plants in the

world, but 90 percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops.'

‘We can now mimic the known domestication course of major crops like rice, maize,

sorghum or others,’ says Caixia Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Then we might try to domesticate plants that have never been domesticated.’

Wild tomatoes, which are native to the Andes region in South America, produce pea-

sized fruits. Over many generations, peoples such as the Aztecs and Incas

transformed the plant by selecting and breeding plants with mutations* in their

genetic structure, which resulted in desirable traits such as larger fruit.

But every time a single plant with a mutation is taken from a larger population for

breeding, much genetic diversity is lost. And sometimes the desirable mutations

come with less desirable traits. For instance, the tomato strains grown for

supermarkets have lost much of their flavour.

By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives,

biologists have been working out what genetic changes occurred as plants were

domesticated. The teams in Brazil and China have now used this knowledge to

reintroduce these changes from scratch while maintaining or even enhancing the

desirable traits of wild strains.

Kudla’s team made six changes altogether. For instance, they tripled the size of fruit

by editing a gene called FRUIT WEIGHT, and increased the number of tomatoes per

truss by editing another called MULTIFLORA.

While the historical domestication of tomatoes reduced levels of the red pigment

lycopene - thought to have potential health benefits - the team in Brazil managed to

boost it instead. The wild tomato has twice as much lycopene as cultivated ones; the

newly domesticated one has five times as much.

'They are quite tasty,' says Kudla. ‘A little bit strong. And very aromatic.’

The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable

traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way they managed to create a strain

resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate yields.

They also created another strain that is more salt tolerant - and has higher levels of

vitamin C.

Meanwhile, Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York state

decided to use the same approach to domesticate the groundcherry or goldenberry

(Physalis pruinosa) for the first time. This fruit looks similar to the closely related

Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana).

Groundcherries are already sold to a limited extent in the US but they are hard to

produce because the plant has a sprawling growth habit and the small fruits fall off

the branches when ripe. Van Eck’s team has edited the plants to increase fruit size,

make their growth more compact and to stop fruits dropping. ‘There’s potential for

this to be a commercial crop,’ says Van Eck. But she adds that taking the work further

would be expensive because of the need to pay for a licence for the CRISPR

technology and get regulatory approval.

This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones of

the Sainsbury Lab in the UK. But it will be hard for new foods to grow so popular with

farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops, he thinks.

The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted into

the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea. By choosing wild plants

that are drought or heat tolerant, says Gao, we could create crops that will thrive

even as the planet warms.

But Kudla didn’t want to reveal which species were in his team’s sights, because

CRISPR has made the process so easy. ‘Any one with the right skills could go to their

lab and do this.’

*mutations: changes in an organism’s genetic structure that can be passed down to

later generations

a reference to a type of tomato that can resist a dangerous infection

an explanation of how problems can arise from focusing only on a certain type of

tomato plant.

a number of examples of plants that are not cultivated at present but could be useful

as food sources

a comparison between the early domestication of the tomato and more recent

research

a personal reaction to the flavour of a tomato that has been genetically edited

List of Researchers

A Jorg Kudla

B Caixia Gao

C Joyce Van Eck

D Jonathan Jones

Domestication of certain plants could allow them to adapt to future environmental

challenges.

The idea of growing and eating unusual plants may not be accepted on a large scale.

It is not advisable for the future direction of certain research to be made public.

Present efforts to domesticate one wild fruit are limited by the costs involved.

Humans only make use of a small proportion of the plant food available on Earth.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

An undesirable trait such as loss of..........................................may be caused by a

mutation in a tomato gene.

By modifying one gene in a tomato plant, researchers made the tomato three times

its original...........................................

A type of tomato which was not badly affected by.........................................., and was

rich "in vitamin C, was produced by a team of researchers in China.

Insight or evolution?

Two scientists consider the origins of discoveries and other innovative behavior

Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such

intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert

Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often disregards the

person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors.

Conventional wisdom also places great weight on insight in promoting breakthrough

scientific achievements, as if ideas spontaneously pop into someone’s head - fully

formed and functional.

There may be some limited truth to this view. However, we believe that it largely

misrepresents the real nature of scientific discovery, as well as that of creativity and

innovation in many other realms of human endeavor.

Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein - whose monumental contributions

are duly celebrated - we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error,

where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or

more steps to the right or left. This evolutionary view of human innovation

undermines the notion of creative genius and recognizes the cumulative nature of

scientific progress.

Consider one unheralded scientist: John Nicholson, a mathematical physicist working

in the 1910s who postulated the existence of‘proto-elements’ in outer space. By

combining different numbers of weights of these proto-elements’ atoms, Nicholson

could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. These

successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that Nicholson was wrong about

the presence of proto-elements: they do not actually exist. Yet, amid his often fanciful

theories and wild speculations, Nicholson also proposed a novel theory about the

structure of atoms. Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic

theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his now-famous model of the

atom.

What are we to make of this story? One might simply conclude that science is a

collective and cumulative enterprise. That may be true, but there may be a deeper

insight to be gleaned. We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as

species of animals do. In biological systems, organisms may display new

characteristics that result from random genetic mutations. In the same way, random,

arbitrary or accidental mutations of ideas may help pave the way for advances in

science. If mutations prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will

continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.

Support for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many

domains. Consider one example of an influential innovation in US horseracing. The

so-called ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement, in which the rider’s foot in his left stirrup is

placed as much as 25 centimeters lower than the right, is believed to confer

important speed advantages when turning on oval tracks. It was developed by a

relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope. Had Westrope conducted

methodical investigations or examined extensive film records in a shrewd plan to

outrun his rivals? Had he foreseen the speed advantage that would be conferred by

riding acey-deucy? No. He suffered a leg injury, which left him unable to fully bend

his left knee. His modification just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand

turning performance. This led to the rapid and widespread adoption of riding acey-

deucy by many riders, a racing style which continues in today’s thoroughbred racing.

Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure,

and also pure serendipity - a happy accident. For example, in the early 1970s, two

employees of the company 3M each had a problem: Spencer Silver had a product - a

glue which was only slightly sticky - and no use for it, while his colleague Art Fry was

trying to figure out how to affix temporary bookmarks in his hymn book without

damaging its pages. The solution to both these problems was the invention of the

brilliantly simple yet phenomenally successful Post-It note. Such examples give lie to

the claim that ingenious, designing minds are responsible for human creativity and

invention. Far more banal and mechanical forces may be at work; forces that are

fundamentally connected to the laws of science.

The notions of insight, creativity and genius are often invoked, but they remain vague

and of doubtful scientific utility, especially when one considers the diverse and

enduring contributions of individuals such as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare,

Beethoven, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Curie, Pasteur and Edison. These notions

merely label rather than explain the evolution of human innovations. We need

another approach, and there is a promising candidate.

The Law of Effect was advanced by psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1898, some

40 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking work on biological

evolution, On the Origin of Species. This simple law holds that organisms tend to

repeat successful behaviors and to refrain from performing unsuccessful ones. Just

like Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection, the Law of Effect involves an entirely

mechanical process of variation and selection, without any end objective in sight.

Of course, the origin of human innovation demands much further study. In particular,

the provenance of the raw material on which the Law of Effect operates is not as

clearly known as that of the genetic mutations on which the Law of Natural Selection

operates. The generation of novel ideas and behaviors may not be entirely random,

but constrained by prior successes and failures - of the current individual (such as

Bohr) or of predecessors (such as Nicholson).

The time seems right for abandoning the naive notions of intelligent design and

genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior.

The purpose of the first paragraph is to

A. defend particular ideas.

B. compare certain beliefs.

C. disprove a widely held view.

D. outline a common assumption.

What are the writers doing in the second paragraph?

A. criticising an opinion

B. justifying a standpoint

C. explaining an approach

D. supporting an argument

In the third paragraph, what do the writers suggest about Darwin and Einstein?

A. They represent an exception to a general rule.

B. Their way of working has been misunderstood.

C. They are an ideal which others should aspire to.

D. Their achievements deserve greater recognition.

John Nicholson is an example of a person whose idea

A. established his reputation as an influential scientist.

B. was only fully understood at a later point in history.

C. laid the foundations for someone else’s breakthrough.

D. initially met with scepticism from the scientific community.

What is the key point of interest about the ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement?

A. the simple reason why it was invented

B. the enthusiasm with which it was adopted

C. the research that went into its development

D. the cleverness of the person who first used it

Acknowledging people such as Plato or da Vinci as geniuses will help us understand

the process by which great minds create new ideas.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The Law of Effect was discovered at a time when psychologists were seeking a

scientific reason why creativity occurs.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The Law of Effect states that no planning is involved in the behaviour of organisms.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The Law of Effect sets out clear explanations about the sources of new ideas and

behaviours.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Many scientists are now turning away from the notion of intelligent design and

genius.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The origins of creative behaviour

The traditional view of scientific discovery is that breakthroughs happen when a

single great mind has sudden 37...........................................Although this can occur,

it is not often the case. Advances are more likely to be the result of a longer process.

In some cases, this process involves

38.........................................., such as Nicholson’s theory about proto-elements. In

others, simple necessity may provoke innovation, as with Westrope’s decision to

modify the position of his riding stirrups. There is also often an element of

39.........................................., for example, the coincidence of ideas that led to the

invention of the Post-It note. With both the Law of Natural Selection and the Law of

Effect, there may be no clear 40.......................................... involved, but merely a

process of variation and selection.

A invention B goals C compromise

mistakes

experiments

E luck F inspiration

C17 IELTS reading test 3

The thylacine

The extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial* that bore

a superficial resemblance to a dog. Its most distinguishing feature was the 13-19

dark brown stripes over its back, beginning at the rear of the body and extending

onto the tail. The thylacine’s average nose-to-tail length for adult males was 162.6

cm, compared to 153.7 cm for females.

The thylacine appeared to occupy most types of terrain except dense rainforest, with

open eucalyptus forest thought to be its prime habitat. In terms of feeding, it was

exclusively carnivorous, and its stomach was muscular with an ability to distend so

that it could eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to

compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. The

thylacine was not a fast runner and probably caught its prey by exhausting it during a

long pursuit. During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more

on scent than any other sense. They emerged to hunt during the evening, night and

early morning and tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day.

Despite the common name ‘tiger’, the thylacine had a shy, nervous temperament.

Although mainly nocturnal, it was sighted moving during the day and some

individuals were even recorded basking in the sun.

The thylacine had an extended breeding season from winter to spring, with

indications that some breeding took place throughout the year. The thylacine, like all

marsupials, was tiny and hairless when born. Newborns crawled into the pouch on

the belly of their mother, and attached themselves to one of the four teats, remaining

there for up to three months. When old enough to leave the pouch, the young stayed

in a lair such as a deep rocky cave, well-hidden nest or hollow log, whilst the mother

hunted.

Approximately 4,000 years ago, the thylacine was widespread throughout New

Guinea and most of mainland Australia, as well as the island of Tasmania. The most

recent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil

from Murray Cave in Western Australia, which is around 3,100 years old. Its

extinction coincided closely with the arrival of wild dogs called dingoes in Australia

and a similar predator in New Guinea. Dingoes never reached Tasmania, and most

scientists see this as the main reason for the thylacine’s survival there.

The dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and

continued for a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep

farmers and bounty hunters** with shotguns. While this determined campaign

undoubtedly played a large part, it is likely that various other factors also contributed

to the decline and eventual extinction of the species. These include competition with

wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the

disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease which may also have

affected the thylacine.

There was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne

Zoo in 1899. This was despite the large numbers that went through some zoos,

particularly London Zoo and Tasmania’s Hobart Zoo. The famous naturalist John

Gould foresaw the thylacine’s demise when he published his Mammals of

Australia between 1848 and 1863, writing, ‘The numbers of this singular animal will

speedily diminish, extermination will have its full sway, and it will then, like the wolf of

England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past.’

However, there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine,

nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the

decades that followed. A notable exception was T.T. Flynn, Professor of Biology at the

University of Tasmania. In 1914, he was sufficiently concerned about the scarcity of

the thylacine to suggest that some should be captured and placed on a small island.

But it was not until 1929, with the species on the very edge of extinction, that

Tasmania’s Animals and Birds Protection Board passed a motion protecting

thylacines only for the month of December, which was thought to be their prime

breeding season. The last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in

the north-east of Tasmania in 1930, leaving just captive specimens. Official protection

of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced in July 1936, 59 days

before the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo on 7th September, 1936.

There have been numerous expeditions and searches for the thylacine over the

years, none of which has produced definitive evidence that thylacines still exist. The

species was declared extinct by the Tasmanian government in 1986.

*marsupial: a mammal, such as a kangaroo, whose young are born incompletely

developed and are typically carried and suckled in a

pouch on the mother's belly

**bounty hunters: people who are paid a reward for killing a wild animal

Choose Y from the passage for each answer.ONE WORD ONL

The thylacine

Appearance and behaviour

• looked rather like a dog

• had a series of stripes along its body and tail

• ate an entirely 1..........................................diet

• probably depended mainly on 2..........................................when hunting

• young spent first months of life inside its mother’s 3..........................................

Decline and extinction

• last evidence in mainland Australia is a 3,100-year-

old 4..........................................

• probably went extinct in mainland Australia due to animals known as dingoes

• reduction

in 5..........................................and available sources of food were partly responsible

for decline in Tasmania

Significant numbers of thylacines were killed by humans from the 1830s onwards.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Several thylacines were born in zoos during the late 1800s.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

John Gould’s prediction about the thylacine surprised some biologists.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

In the early 1900s, many scientists became worried about the possible extinction of

the thylacine.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

T. T. Flynn’s proposal to rehome captive thylacines on an island proved to be

impractical.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

There were still reasonable numbers of thylacines in existence when a piece of

legislation protecting the species during their breeding season was passed.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

From 1930 to 1936, the only known living thylacines were all in captivity.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Attempts to find living thylacines are now rarely made.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Palm oil

Palm oil is an edible oil derived from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, and is

currently the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It’s almost certainly in the

soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits

we snack on during the day. Why is palm oil so attractive for manufacturers?

Primarily because its unique properties - such as remaining solid at room

temperature - make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation, allowing many

packaged foods on supermarket shelves to have ‘best before’ dates of months, even

years, into the future.

Many farmers have seized the opportunity to maximise the planting of oil palm trees.

Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew

from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland

in the entire world. From a mere two million tonnes of palm oil being produced

annually globally 50 years ago, there are now around 60 million tonnes produced

every single year, a figure looking likely to double or even triple by the middle of the

century.

However, there are multiple reasons why conservationists cite the rapid spread of oil

palm plantations as a major concern. There are countless news stories of

deforestation, habitat destruction and dwindling species populations, all as a direct

result of land clearing to establish oil palm tree monoculture on an industrial scale,

particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Endangered species - most famously the

Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna -

have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations.

‘Palm oil is surely one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity,’ declares Dr

Farnon Ellwood of the University of the West of England, Bristol. ‘Palm oil is replacing

rainforest, and rainforest is where all the species are. That’s a problem.’ This has led

to some radical questions among environmentalists, such as whether consumers

should try to boycott palm oil entirely.

Meanwhile Bhavani Shankar, Professor at London’s School of Oriental and African

Studies, argues, ‘It’s easy to say that palm oil is the enemy and we should be against

it. It makes for a more dramatic story, and it’s very intuitive. But given the complexity

of the argument, I think a much more nuanced story is closer to the truth.’

One response to the boycott movement has been the argument for the vital role palm

oil plays in lifting many millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. Is it

desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply

chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for

their livelihoods? How best to strike a utilitarian balance between these competing

factors has become a serious bone of contention.

Even the deforestation argument isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Oil palm

plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare

than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high

yield - which is predominantly what makes it so profitable - is potentially also an

ecological benefit. If ten times more palm oil can be produced from a patch of land

than any competing oil, then ten times more land would need to be cleared in order

to produce the same volume of oil from that competitor.

As for the question of carbon emissions, the issue really depends on what oil palm

trees are replacing. Crops vary in the degree to which they sequester carbon - in

other words, the amount of carbon they capture from the atmosphere and store

within the plant. The more carbon a plant sequesters, the more it reduces the effect

of climate change. As Shankar explains: ‘[Palm oil production] actually sequesters

more carbon in some ways than other alternatives. [...] Of course, if you’re cutting

down virgin forest it’s terrible - that’s what’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s

been allowed to get out of hand. But if it’s replacing rice, for example, it might actually

sequester more carbon.’

The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm

Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other

interested parties. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been

reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their

product to be regarded as officially ‘sustainable’. The RSPO insists upon no virgin

forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other

criteria. Only once these requirements are fully satisfied is the oil allowed to be sold

as certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Recent figures show that the RSPO now

certifies around 12 million tonnes of palm oil annually, equivalent to roughly 21

percent of the world’s total palm oil production.

There is even hope that oil palm plantations might not need to be such sterile

monocultures, or ‘green deserts’, as Ellwood describes them. New research at

Ellwood’s lab hints at one plant which might make all the difference. The bird’s nest

fern (Asplenium nidus) grows on trees in an epiphytic fashion (meaning it’s

dependent on the tree only for support, not for nutrients), and is native to many

tropical regions, where as a keystone species it performs a vital ecological role.

Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird’s nest fern into oil palm plantations could

potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all

manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects,

amphibians, reptiles and even mammals.

examples of a range of potential environmental advantages of oil palm tree

cultivation

description of an organisation which controls the environmental impact of palm oil

production

examples of the widespread global use of palm oil

reference to a particular species which could benefit the ecosystem of oil palm

plantations

figures illustrating the rapid expansion of the palm oil industry

an economic justification for not opposing the palm oil industry

examples of creatures badly affected by the establishment of oil palm plantations

Which TWO statements are made about the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

(RSPO)?

 A Its membership has grown steadily over the course of the last decade.

 B It demands that certified producers be open and honest about their

practices.

 C It took several years to establish its set of criteria for sustainable palm oil

certification.

 D Its regulations regarding sustainability are stricter than those governing

other industries.

 E It was formed at the request of environmentalists concerned about the loss

of virgin forests.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

One advantage of palm oil for manufacturers is that it

stays..........................................even when not refrigerated.

The..........................................is the best known of the animals suffering habitat loss

as a result of the spread of oil palm plantations.

As one of its criteria for the certification of sustainable palm oil, the RSPO insists that

growers check..........................................on a routine basis.

Ellwood and his researchers are looking into whether the bird’s nest fern could

restore..........................................in areas where oil palm trees are grown.

Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers

Katharine L. Shester reviews a book by Jason Barr about the development of New

York City

In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr takes the reader through a detailed history of New

York City. The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to

explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions

of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today. Building the Skyline is

organized into two distinct parts. The first is primarily historical and addresses New

York’s settlement and growth from 1609 to 1900; the second deals primarily with the

20th century and is a compilation of chapters commenting on different aspects of

New York’s urban development. The tone and organization of the book changes

somewhat between the first and second parts, as the latter chapters incorporate

aspects of Barr’s related research papers.

Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a ‘helicopter time-machine’ ride -

giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have

looked from the sky. He then moves on to a subterranean walking tour of the city,

indicating the location of rock and water below the subsoil, before taking the reader

back to the surface. His love of the city comes through as he describes various fun

facts about the location of the New York residence of early 19th-century vice-

president Aaron Burr as well as a number of legends about the city.

Chapters two and three take the reader up to the Civil War (1861-1865), with chapter

two focusing on the early development of land and the implementation of a grid

system in 1811. Chapter three focuses on land use before the Civil War. Both

chapters are informative and well researched and set the stage for the economic

analysis that comes later in the book. I would have liked Barr to expand upon his

claim that existing tenements* prevented skyscrapers in certain neighborhoods

because ‘likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary

“slum clearance’”. Later in the book, Barr makes the claim that the depth of bedrock**

was not a limiting factor for developers, as foundation costs were a small fraction of

the cost of development. At first glance, it is not obvious why slum clearance would

be limiting, while more expensive foundations would not.

Chapter four focuses on immigration and the location of neighborhoods and

tenements in the late 19th century. Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves

and analyzes their locations in terms of the amenities available in the area. Most of

these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries

located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods bordering Central Park.

Part two of the book begins with a discussion of the economics of skyscraper height.

In chapter five, Barr distinguishes between engineering height, economic height, and

developer height — where engineering height is the tallest building that can be safely

made at a given time, economic height is the height that is most efficient from

society’s point of view, and developer height is the actual height chosen by the

developer, who is attempting to maximize return on investment.

Chapter five also has an interesting discussion of the technological advances that led

to the construction of skyscrapers. For example, the introduction of iron and steel

skeletal frames made thick, load-bearing walls unnecessary, expanding the usable

square footage of buildings and increasing the use of windows and availability of

natural light. Chapter six then presents data on building height throughout the 20th

century and uses regression analysis to ‘predict’ building construction. While less

technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more

technical than would be preferred by a general audience.

Chapter seven tackles the ‘bedrock myth’, the assumption that the absence of

bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the

reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers. Rather, Barr

argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were

neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building

a skyscraper. What I enjoyed the most about this chapter was Barr’s discussion of

how foundations are actually built. He describes the use of caissons, which enable

workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until

they reach bedrock. Barr’s thorough technological history discusses not only how

caissons work, but also the dangers involved. While this chapter references empirical

research papers, it is a relatively easy read.

Chapters eight and nine focus on the birth of Midtown and the building boom of the

1920s. Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that

may serve as a distraction to readers primarily interested in New York. However, they

would be well-suited for undergraduates learning about the economics of cities. In

the next chapter, Barr considers two of the primary explanations for the building

boom of the 1920s — the first being exuberance, and the second being financing. He

uses data to assess the viability of these two explanations and finds that supply and

demand factors explain much of the development of the 1920s; though it enabled the

boom, cheap credit was not, he argues, the primary cause.

In the final chapter (chapter 10), Barr discusses another of his empirical papers that

estimates Manhattan land values from the mid-19th century to the present day. The

data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive. Toward the end

of the chapter, Barr assesses ‘whether skyscrapers are a cause or an effect of high

land values’. He finds that changes in land values predict future building height, but

the reverse is not true. The book ends with an epilogue, in which Barr discusses the

impact of climate change on the city and makes policy suggestions for New York

going forward.

*a tenement: a multi-occupancy building of any sort, but particularly a run-down

apartment building or slum building

**bedrock: the solid, hard rock in the ground that lies under a loose layer of soil

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.

What point does Shester make about Barr’s book in the first paragraph?

A. It gives a highly original explanation for urban development.

B. Elements of Barr’s research papers are incorporated throughout the book.

C. Other books that are available on the subject have taken a different approach.

D. It covers a range of factors that affected the development of New York.

How does Shester respond to the information in the book about tenements?

A. She describes the reasons for Barr’s interest.

B. She indicates a potential problem with Barr’s analysis.

C. She compares Barr’s conclusion with that of other writers.

D. She provides details about the sources Barr used for his research.

What does Shester say about chapter six of the book?

A. It contains conflicting data.

B. It focuses too much on possible trends.

C. It is too specialised for most readers.

D. It draws on research that is out of date.

What does Shester suggest about the chapters focusing on the 1920s building

boom?

A. The information should have been organised differently.

B. More facts are needed about the way construction was financed.

C. The explanation that is given for the building boom is unlikely.

D. Some parts will have limited appeal to certain people.

What impresses Shester the most about the chapter on land values?

A. the broad time period that is covered

B. the interesting questions that Barr asks

C. the nature of the research into the topic

D. the recommendations Barr makes for the future

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage

3? In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write

 YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

 NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

 NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

The description in the first chapter of how New York probably looked from the air in

the early 1600s lacks interest.

YES

NOT GIVEN

Chapters two and three prepare the reader well for material yet to come.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The biggest problem for many nineteenth-century New York immigrant

neighbourhoods was a lack of amenities.

YES

NOT GIVEN

In the nineteenth century, New York’s immigrant neighbourhoods tended to

concentrate around the harbour.

YES

NOT GIVEN

The bedrock myth

In chapter seven, Barr indicates how the lack of

bedrock close to the surface does

not explain why skyscrapers are absent from

36..........................................He points out that

although the cost of foundations increases when

bedrock is deep below the surface, this cannot be

regarded as 37........................................., especially

when compared to 38...........................................

A particularly enjoyable part of the chapter was Barr’s

account of how foundations are built. He describes not

only how 39......................................... are made

possible by the use of caissons, but he also discusses

their 40..........................................The chapter is well

researched but relatively easy to understand.

A development plans B deep excavations C great distance

D excessive expense E impossible tasks F associated risks

G water level H specific areas I total expenditure

J construction guidelines

C17 IELTS reading test 4

Bats to the rescue

How Madagascar’s bats are helping to save the rainforest

There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and

conservation are more strained. Madagascar’s forests are being converted to

agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. Much of this destruction is

fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for

this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by

local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields.

The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all

species are suffering. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently

thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.

Enter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. He’s passionate about

conservation, and bats. More specifically, he’s interested in how bats are responding

to human activity and deforestation in particular. Rocha’s new study shows that

several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control

service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, he believes, can ease the

financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.

Bats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six

recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important

regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.

Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of

indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects

swarming above the country’s rice fields. They include the Malagasy mouse-eared

bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’

wrinkle-lipped bat.

‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as

biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ‘We found that six species of bat are

preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm.

The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge

financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’

The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and

Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the

farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country.

Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a

thousand bat ‘feeding buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their

prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. They next

used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the

different sites.

The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was

in continuous forest - seven times higher over rice fields which were on flat ground,

and sixteen times higher over fields on the sides of hills - leaving no doubt that the

animals are preferentially foraging in these man-made ecosystems. The researchers

suggest that the bats favour these fields because lack of water and nutrient run-off

make these crops more susceptible to insect pest infestations. DNA analysis showed

that all six species of bat had fed on economically important insect pests. While the

findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also

found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the

black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia

nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).

‘The effectiveness of bats as pest controllers has already been proven in the USA

and Catalonia,’ said co-author James Kemp, from the University of Lisbon. ‘But our

study is the first to show this happening in Madagascar, where the stakes for both

farmers and conservationists are so high.’

Local people may have a further reason to be grateful to their bats. While the animal

is often associated with spreading disease, Rocha and his team found evidence that

Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes - carriers of

malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis - as well as blackflies, which spread

river blindness.

Rocha points out that the relationship is complicated. When food is scarce, bats

become a crucial source of protein for local people. Even the children will hunt them.

And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not

welcomed there because they make them unclean. At the same time, however, they

are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as

beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the

people. And one potential problem is that while these bats are benefiting from

farming, at the same time deforestation is reducing the places where they can roost,

which could have long-term effects on their numbers. Rocha says, ‘With the right

help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by

installing bat houses.’

Rocha and his colleagues believe that maximising bat populations can help to boost

crop yields and promote sustainable livelihoods. The team is now calling for further

research to quantify this contribution. ‘I’m very optimistic,’ says Rocha. ‘If we give

nature a hand, we can speed up the process of regeneration.’

Many Madagascan forests are being destroyed by attacks from insects.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Loss of habitat has badly affected insectivorous bats in Madagascar.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Ricardo Rocha has carried out studies of bats in different parts of the world.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Habitat modification has resulted in indigenous bats in Madagascar becoming useful

to farmers.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

The Malagasy mouse-eared bat is more common than other indigenous bat species

in Madagascar.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Bats may feed on paddy swarming caterpillars and grass webworms.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in

boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

The study carried out by Rocha’s team

Aim • to investigate the feeding habits of bats in

farmland near the Ranomafana National Park

Method • ultrasonic recording to identify favourite

feeding spots

• DNA analysis of bat

7..........................................

Findings • the bats

- were most active in rice fields located

on hills

- ate pests of rice,

8.........................................., sugarcane,

nuts and fruit

- prevent the spread of disease by

eating 9..........................................and

blackflies

• local attitudes to bats are mixed:

- they provide food rich in

10..........................................

- the buildings where they roost

become 11..........................................

- they play an important role in local

12..........................................

Recommendation • farmers should provide special

13..........................................to support the bat

population

Does education fuel economic growth?

Over the last decade, a huge database about the lives of southwest German villagers

between 1600 and 1900 has been compiled by a team led by Professor Sheilagh

Ogilvie at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Economics. It includes court records,

guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and - the most recent

addition - 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions

belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries. Ogilvie, who

discovered the inventories in the archives of two German communities 30 years ago,

believes they may hold the answer to a conundrum that has long puzzled

economists: the lack of evidence for a causal link between education and a country’s

economic growth.

As Ogilvie explains, ‘Education helps us to work more productively, invent better

technology, and earn more ... surely it must be critical for economic growth? But, if

you look back through history, there’s no evidence that having a high literacy rate

made a country industrialise earlier.’ Between 1600 and 1900, England had only

mediocre literacy rates by European standards, yet its economy grew fast and it was

the first country to industrialise. During this period, Germany and Scandinavia had

excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late.

‘Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education

causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth

increases education,’ she adds.

In the handwritten inventories that Ogilvie is analysing are the belongings of women

and men at marriage, remarriage and death. From badger skins to Bibles, sewing

machines to scarlet bodices - the villagers’ entire worldly goods are included.

Inventories of agricultural equipment and craft tools reveal economic activities;

ownership of books and education-related objects like pens and slates suggests how

people learned. In addition, the tax lists included in the database record the value of

farms, workshops, assets and debts; signatures and people’s estimates of their age

indicate literacy and numeracy levels; and court records reveal obstacles (such as

the activities of the guilds*) that stifled industry.

Previous studies usually had just one way of linking education with economic growth

- the presence of schools and printing presses, perhaps, or school enrolment, or the

ability to sign names. According to Ogilvie, the database provides multiple indicators

for the same individuals, making it possible to analyse links between literacy,

numeracy, wealth, and industriousness, for individual women and men over the long

term.

Ogilvie and her team have been building the vast database of material possessions

on top of their full demographic reconstruction of the people who lived in these two

German communities. ‘We can follow the same people - and their descendants -

across 300 years of educational and economic change,’ she says. Individual lives

have unfolded before their eyes. Stories like that of the 24-year-olds Ana Regina and

Magdalena Riethmullerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church

instead of listening to the sermon. ‘This tells us they were continuing to develop their

reading skills at least a decade after leaving school,’ explains Ogilvie. The database

also reveals the case of Juliana Schweickherdt, a 50-year-old spinster living in the

small Black Forest community of Wildberg, who was reprimanded in 1752 by the

local weavers’ guild for ‘weaving cloth and combing wool, counter to the guild

ordinance’. When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members,

she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one

third of a servant’s annual wage. It was a small act of defiance by today’s standards,

but it reflects a time when laws in Germany and elsewhere regulated people’s access

to labour markets. The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using

their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation.

The data-gathering phase of the project has been completed and now, according to

Ogilvie, it is time ‘to ask the big questions’. One way to look at whether education

causes economic growth is to ‘hold wealth constant’. This involves following the lives

of different people with the same level of wealth over a period of time. If wealth is

constant, it is possible to discover whether education was, for example, linked to the

cultivation of new crops, or to the adoption of industrial innovations like sewing

machines. The team will also ask what aspect of education helped people engage

more with productive and innovative activities. Was it, for instance, literacy,

numeracy, book ownership, years of schooling? Was there a threshold level - a

tipping point - that needed to be reached to affect economic performance?

Ogilvie hopes to start finding answers to these questions over the next few years.

One thing is already clear, she says: the relationship between education and

economic growth is far from straightforward. ‘German-speaking central Europe is an

excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,’ she explains. Between

1600 and 1900, literacy rates and book ownership were high and yet the region

remained poor. It was also the case that local guilds and merchant associations were

extremely powerful and legislated against anything that undermined their

monopolies. In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and

resisted changes that might reduce their influence.

‘Early findings suggest that the potential benefits of education for the economy can

be held back by other barriers, and this has implications for today,’ says Ogilvie.

‘Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries, but this

spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people - especially

women and the poor - from using their education in economically productive ways. If

economic institutions are poorly set up, for instance, education can’t lead to growth.’

*guild: an association of artisans or merchants which oversees the practice of their

craft or trade in a particular area

an explanation of the need for research to focus on individuals with a fairly consistent

income

examples of the sources the database has been compiled from

an account of one individual’s refusal to obey an order

a reference to a region being particularly suited to research into the link between

education and economic growth

examples of the items included in a list of personal possessions

Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Demographic reconstruction of two German communities

The database that Ogilvie and her team has compiled sheds light on the lives of a

range of individuals, as well as those of their 19.........................................., over a

300-year period. For example, Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin were

reprimanded for reading while they should have been paying attention to a

20...........................................

There was also Juliana Schweickherdt, who came to the notice of the weavers’ guild

in the year 1752 for breaking guild rules. As a punishment, she was later given a

21...........................................Cases like this illustrate how the guilds could prevent

22..........................................and stop skilled people from working.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about literacy rates in

Section B?

 A Very little research has been done into the link between high literacy rates

and improved earnings.

 B Literacy rates in Germany between 1600 and 1900 were very good.

 C There is strong evidence that high literacy rates in the modern world result

in economic growth.

 D England is a good example of how high literacy rates helped a country

industrialise.

 E Economic growth can help to improve literacy rates.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make in Section F about

guilds in German-speaking Central Europe between 1600 and 1900?

 A They helped young people to learn a skill.

 B They were opposed to people moving to an area for work.

 C They kept better records than guilds in other parts of the world.

 D They opposed practices that threatened their control over a trade.

 E They predominantly consisted of wealthy merchants.

Timur Gareyev - blindfold chess champion

Next month, a chess player named Timur Gareyev will take on nearly 50 opponents

at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as

normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded. Even by world record standards, it sets a

high bar for human performance. The 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied

world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles,

and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping. He has already

proved himself a strong chess player, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013,

Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The

skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King.

But Gareyev’s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing

community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform

such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)

called him in for tests. They now have their first results. The ability to play a game of

chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,’ said

Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. ‘But the thing that’s so remarkable

about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active

at once. To me it is simply astonishing.’

Gareyev learned to play chess in his native Uzbekistan when he was six years old.

Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament aged eight and soon

became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he was crowned Asia’s youngest ever

chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, and as a student helped his

university win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the

third best chess player in the US.

To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of

the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-

century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45

simultaneous games in his mind, winning 39 in the 24-hour session.

Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it.

The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they

play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces

make, the defences and attacks. ‘You recreate it in your mind,’ said Gareyev. ‘A lot of

players are capable of doing what I’m doing.’ The real mental challenge comes from

playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece

on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated

with each player’s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to

the next board. First moves can be tough to remember because they are fairly

uninteresting. But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When

Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on

only a fragmented memory of the pieces’ positions.

The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These

assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test

measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards,

soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. ‘He was not exceptional

on any of these standard tests,’ said Rissman. ‘We didn’t find anything other than

playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.’ But next came the brain

scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well

connected the various regions of the chess player’s brain were. Though the results

are tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average

communication between parts of Gareyev’s brain that make up what is called the

frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only

one or two scored more highly on the measure. ‘You use this network in almost any

complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out

whether you should be responding or not,’ said Rissman.

It was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev’s brain. The scans also

suggest that Gareyev’s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts

than usual. Initial results suggest that the areas of his brain that process visual

images - such as chess boards - may have stronger links to other brain regions, and

so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may

hold the first clues to Gareyev’s extraordinary ability.

For the world record attempt, Gareyev hopes to play 47 blindfold games at once in

about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. ‘I don’t worry too much

about the winning percentage, that’s never been an issue for me,’ he said. The most

important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can

fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.’

a reference to earlier examples of blindfold chess

an outline of what blindfold chess involves

a claim that Gareyev’s skill is limited to chess

why Gareyev’s skill is of interest to scientists

an outline of Gareyev’s priorities

a reason why the last part of a game may be difficult

In the forthcoming games, all the participants will be blindfolded.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Gareyev has won competitions in BASE jumping.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

UCLA is the first university to carry out research into blindfold chess players.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Good chess players are likely to be able to play blindfold chess.

TRUE

FALSE

NOT GIVEN

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

How the research was carried out The researchers started by testing Gareyev’s

37..........................................; for example, he was required to recall a string of

38..........................................in order and also in reverse order. Although his

performance was normal, scans showed an unusual amount of

39..........................................within the areas of Gareyev’s brain that are concerned

with directing attention. In addition, the scans raised the possibility of unusual

strength in the parts of his brain that deal with 40..........................................input.

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Cam IELTS 14 reading test 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN’S PLAY
Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale
turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she’s creating
an enchanting world. Although she isn’t aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take
her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important
repercussions in her adult life.
Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her
younger brother. When she bosses him around as his ‘teacher’, she’s practising how
to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle
down with a board game, she’s learning about the need to follow rules and take turns with a partner.
‘Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,’
says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of
Cambridge, UK. ‘It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults
and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.’
Recognizing the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek
philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and
ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.
But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in
play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. ‘The
opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are
becoming increasingly scarce,’ he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of
risk to do with traffic, as well as parents’ increased wish to protect their children from
being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on ‘earlier is better’ which is leading
to greater competition in academic learning and schools.
International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to
develop policies concerned with children’s right to play, and to consider implications
for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.
‘The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and
unpredictable – but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old “to play”, then you as the
researcher have intervened,’ explains Dr Sara Baker. ‘And we want to know what the
long-term impact of play is. It’s a real challenge.’
Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of
how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the
impact it has on the child’s later life.
Now, thanks to the university’s new Centre for Research on Play in Education,
Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of
researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child develops.
‘A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children’s self-
control,’ explains Baker. ‘This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking
progresses – it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging activities.’
In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that
children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an
unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. ‘This sort of evidence makes up think
that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem- solvers in the long run.’
If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it
could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-
regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.
Gibson adds: ‘Playful behavior is also an important indicator of healthy social and
emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing
children at play can give us important clues about their well-being and can even be
useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.’
Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to
supporting children’s writing. ‘Many primary school children find writing difficult, but
we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an
instructional one.’ Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first
played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first
created their story with Lego*, with similar results. ‘Many teachers commented that
they had always previously had children saying they didn’t know what to write about.
With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.’
Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early
1970s, when, as he describes, ‘the teaching of young children was largely a quiet
backwater, untroubled by any serious intellectual debate or controversy.’ Now, the
landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as school starting age.
‘Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as
something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not
lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human
achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a
rich diet of play experiences.’
———————————-
* Lego: coloured plastic building blocks and other pieces that can be joined together Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Children’s play
Uses of children’s play
• building a ‘magical kingdom’ may help develop 1…………………………………
• board games involve 2 ……………………………. and turn-taking
Recent changes affecting children’s play
• populations of 3 ………………………… have grown
• opportunities for free play are limited due to
– fear of 4 ………………………………
– fear of 5 ………………………………
– increased 6 …………………………… in schools
International policies on children’s play
• it is difficult to find 7 …………………………… to support new policies
• research needs to study the impact of play on the rest of the child’s 8
…………………………….. 9
Children with good self-control are known to be likely to do well at school later on. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
The way a child plays may provide information about possible medical problems. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
Playing with dolls was found to benefit girls’ writing more than boys’ writing. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
Children had problems thinking up ideas when they first created the story with Lego. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
People nowadays regard children’s play as less significant than they did in the past. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
The growth of bike-sharing schemes around the world
How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing schemes A
The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer’s day in
Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organization that came up with the idea, was a group
of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which
was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air
pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number
of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and
inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various
locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport. B
Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in
Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme
succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention – particularly when it came to
publicising Provo’s aims – but struggled to get off the ground. The police were
opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed
around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-
sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. ‘The first Witte Fietsenplan
was just a symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few bikes white, that was all.
Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two years later.’ C
Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte
Fietsenplan to the city council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam
would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,’ he explains. ‘I
made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle – per person, per
kilometer – would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public
transport per person per kilometer.’ Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected
the plan. ‘They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future
for the car,’ says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged. D
Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two
Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the
world’s first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped
a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.’ After setting
up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the
Netherlands – and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch
Ministry of Transport. ‘Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more
environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing
was a real possibility.’ A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999 in Amsterdam.
However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and
payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank.
Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks
which could be opened with the chip card – the plan started with 250 bikes,
distributed over five stations. E
Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside
Schimmelpennink. ‘I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced
that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with
the ones we had.’ The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. ‘After
every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says. ‘I
really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be
recognised as white bikes.’ But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to
abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. ‘That chip card was pivotal to the
system,’ Molenaar says. ‘To continue the project we would have needed to set up
another system, but the business partner had lost interest.’ F
Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but – characteristically – not for long. In 2002 he
got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up
his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. ‘That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a
system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the
history of bike-sharing.’ The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-
sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all
over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s
wonderful that this happened,’ he says. ‘But financially I didn’t really benefit from it,
because I never filed for a patent.’ G
In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen,
it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world – but the city
never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because
everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see
that this changes Amsterdam’s need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel
on the underground don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional
transport to reach their final destination.’ Although he thinks it is strange that a city
like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-sharing scheme, he is optimistic
about the future. ‘In the ‘60s we didn’t stand a chance because people were prepared
to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed.
Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.’
NB You may use any letter more than once. 14
a description of how people misused a bike-sharing scheme 15
an explanation of why a proposed bike-sharing scheme was turned down 16
a reference to a person being unable to profit their work 17
an explanation of the potential savings a bike-sharing scheme would bring 18
a reference to the problems a bike-sharing scheme was intended to solve
Choose TWO letters, A-E
Write the correct letters in boxes and 19 20 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about the Amsterdam bike-sharing scheme of 1999?
A It was initially opposed by a government department.
B It failed when a partner in the scheme withdrew support.
C It aimed to be more successful than the Copenhagen scheme.
D It was made possible by a change in people’s attitudes.
E It attracted interest from a range of bike designers. 19 20
Which TWO of the following statements are made in the text about Amsterdam today?
A The majority of residents would like to prevent all cars from entering the city.
B There is little likelihood of the city having another bike-sharing scheme.
C More trips in the city are made by bike than by any other form of transport.
D A bike-sharing scheme would benefit residents who use public transport.
E The city has a reputation as a place that welcomes cyclists. 21 22 Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The first urban bike-sharing scheme
The first bike-sharing scheme was the idea of the Dutch group Provo. The people
who belonged to this group were 23……………………….. They were concerned
about damage to the environment and about 24 ………………………….., and
believed that the bike-sharing scheme would draw attention to these issues. As well
as painting some bikes white, they handed out …………………….. 25 that condemned the use of cars.
However, the scheme was not a great success: almost as quickly as Provo left the
bikes around the city, the 26 ………………………. Took them away. According to
Schimmelpennink, the scheme was intended to be symbolic. The idea was to get
people thinking about the issues.
Motivational factors and the hospitality industry
A critical ingredient in the success of hotels is developing and maintaining superior
performance from their employees. How is that accomplished? What Human
Resource Management (HRM) practices should organizations invest in to acquire and retain great employees?
Some hotels aim to provide superior working conditions for their employees. The idea
originated from workplaces – usually in the non-service sector – that emphasized fun
and enjoyment as part of work-life balance. By contrast, the service sector, and more
specifically hotels, has traditionally not extended these practices to address basic
employee needs, such as good working conditions.
Pfeffer (1994) emphasizes that in order to succeed in a global business environment,
organizations must make investment in Human Resource Management (HRM) to
allow them to acquire employees who possess better skills and capabilities than their
competitors. This investment will be to their competitive advantage. Despite this
recognition of the importance of employee development, the hospitality industry has
historically been dominated by underdeveloped HR practices (Lucas, 2002).
Lucas also points out that ‘the substance of HRM practices does not appear to be
designed to foster constructive relations with employees or to represent a managerial
approach that enables developing and drawing out the full potential of people, even
though employees may be broadly satisfied with many aspects of their work’ (Lucas,
2002). In addition, or maybe as a result, high employee turnover has been a
recurring problem throughout the hospitality industry. Among the many cited reasons
are low compensation, inadequate benefits, poor working conditions and
compromised employee morale and attitudes (Maroudas et al., 2008).
Ng and Sorensen (2008) demonstrated that when managers provide recognition to
employees, motivate employees to work together, and remove obstacles preventing
effective performance, employees feel more obligated to stay with the company. This
was succinctly summarized by Michel et al. (2013): ‘[P]roviding support to employees
gives them the confidence to perform their jobs better and the motivation to stay with
the organization.’ Hospitality organizations can therefore enhance employee
motivation and retention through the development and improvement of their working
conditions. These conditions are inherently linked to the working environment.
While it seems likely that employees’ reactions to their job characteristics could be
affected by a predisposition to view their work environment negatively, no evidence
exists to support this hypothesis (Spector et al., 2000). However, given the
opportunity, many people will find something to complain about in relation to their
workplace (Poulston, 2009). There is a strong link between the perceptions of
employees and particular factors of their work environment that are separate from the
work itself, including company policies, salary and vacations.
Such conditions are particularly troubling for the luxury hotel market, where high-
quality service, requiring a sophisticated approach to HRM, is recognized as a critical
source of competitive advantage (Maroudas et al., 2008). In a real sense, the
services of hotel employees represent their industry (Schneider and Bowen, 1993).
This representation has commonly been limited to guest experiences. This suggests
that there has been a dichotomy between the guest environment provided in luxury
hotels and the working conditions of their employees.
It is therefore essential for hotel management to develop HRM practices that enable
them to inspire and retain competent employees. This requires an understanding of
what motivates employees at different levels of management and different stages of
their careers (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). This implies that it is beneficial for hotel
managers to understand what practices are most favorable to increase employee satisfaction and retention.
Herzberg (1966) proposes that people have two major types of needs, the first being
extrinsic motivation factors relating to the context in which work is performed, rather
than the work itself. These include working conditions and job security. When these
factors are unfavorable, job dissatisfaction may result. Significantly, though, just
fulfilling these needs does not result in satisfaction, but only in the reduction of
dissatisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008).
Employees also have intrinsic motivation needs or motivators, which include such
factors as achievement and recognition. Unlike extrinsic factors, motivator factors
may ideally result in job satisfaction (Maroudas et al., 2008). Herzberg’s (1966)
theory discusses the need for a ‘balance’ of these two types of needs.
The impact of fun as a motivating factor at work has also been explored. For
example, Tews, Michel and Stafford (2013) conducted a study focusing on staff from
a chain of themed restaurants in the United States. It was found that fun activities
had a favorable impact on performance and manager support for fun had a favorable
impact in reducing turnover. Their findings support the view that fun may indeed have
a beneficial effect, but the framing of that fun must be carefully aligned with both
organizational goals and employee characteristics. ‘Managers must learn how to
achieve the delicate balance of allowing employees the freedom to enjoy themselves
at work while simultaneously high levels of performance’ (Tews et al., 2013).
Deery (2008) has recommended several actions that can be adopted at the
organizational level to retain good staff as well as assist in balancing work and family
life. Those particularly appropriate to the hospitality industry include allowing
adequate breaks during the working day, staff functions that involve families, and
providing health and well-being opportunities.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once. List of Researchers A Pfeffer B Lucas C Maroudas et al. D Ng and Sorensen E Enz and Siguaw F Deery 27
Hotel managers need to know what would encourage good staff to remain. 28
The actions of managers may make staff feel they shouldn’t move to a different employer. 29
Little is done in the hospitality industry to help workers improve their skills. 30
Staff are less likely to change jobs if cooperation is encouraged. 31
Dissatisfaction with pay is not the only reason why hospitality workers change jobs. 32
One reason for high staff turnover in the hospitality industry is poor morale. YES NO NOT GIVEN 33
Research has shown that staff have a tendency to dislike their workplace. YES NO NOT GIVEN 34
An improvement in working conditions and job security makes staff satisfied with their jobs. YES NO NOT GIVEN 35
Staff should be allowed to choose when they take breaks during the working day. YES NO NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Fun at work
Tews, Michel and Stafford carried out research on staff in an American chain
of 36……………………… . They discovered that activities designed for staff to have fun improved their
……………………… , and that management involvement led to 37 lower staff
………………………….. . They also found that the activities needed to 38 fit with both the company’s
………………………….. and 39
the 40 …………………………. Of the staff. A balance was required between a degree
of freedom and maintaining work standards.
Cam IELTS 14 reading test 2
Alexander Henderson (1831-1913)
Born in Scotland, Henderson emigrated to Canada in 1855 and become a well- known landscape photographer
Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful
merchant. His grandfather, also called Alexander, had founded the family business,
and later became the first chairman of the National Bank of Scotland. The family had
extensive landholding in Scotland. Besides its residence in Edinburgh, it owned
Press Estate, 650 acres of farmland about 35 miles southeast of the city. The family
often stayed at Press Castle, the large mansion on the northern edge of the property,
and Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area, playing on the beach near
Eyemouth or fishing in the streams nearby.
Even after he went to school at Murcheston Academy on the outskirts of Edinburgh,
Henderson returned to Press at weekends. In 1849 he began a three-year
apprenticeship to become an accountant. Although he never liked the prospect of a
business career, he stayed with it to please his family. In October 1855, however, he
emigrated to Canada with his wife Agnes Elder Robertson and they settled in Montreal.
Henderson learned photography in Montreal around the year 1857 and quickly took it
up as a serious amateur. He became a personal friend and colleague of the Scottish
– Canadian photographer William Notman. The two men made a photographic
excursion to Niagara Falls in 1860 and they cooperated on experiments with
magnesium flares as a source of artificial light in 1865. They belonged to the same
societies and were among the founding members of the Art Association of Montreal.
Henderson acted as chairman of the association’s first meeting, which was held in
Notman’s studio on 11 January 1860.
In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different. While
Notman’s landscapes were noted for their bold realism, Henderson for the first 20
years of his career produced romantic images, showing the strong influence of the
British landscape tradition. His artistic and technical progress was rapid and in 1865
he published his first major collection of landscape photographs. The publication had
limited circulation (only seven copies have ever been found), and was
called Canadian Views and Studies. The contents of each copy vary significantly and
have proved a useful source for evaluating Henderson’s early work.
In 1866, he gave up his business to open a photographic studio, advertising himself
as a portrait and landscape photographer. From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to
specialize in landscape photography and other views. His numerous photographs of
city life revealed in street scenes, houses, and markets are alive with human activity,
and although his favourite subject was landscape he usually composed his scenes
around such human pursuits as farming the land, cutting ice on a river, or sailing
down a woodland stream. There was sufficient demand for these types of scenes and
others he took depicting the lumber trade, steamboats and waterfalls to enable him to
make a living. There was little competing hobby or amateur photography before the
late 1880s because of the time-consuming techniques involved and the weight of
equipment. People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts, and
catering to this market, Henderson had stock photographs on display at his studio for
mounting, framing, or inclusion in albums.
Henderson frequently exhibited his photographs in Montreal and abroad, in London,
Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia. He met with greater success in
1877 and 1878 in New York when he won first prizes in the exhibition held by E and
H T Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype process. In 1878
his work won second prize at the world exhibition in Paris.
In the 1890s and 1880s Henderson travelled widely throughout Quebec and Ontario,
in Canada, documenting the major cities of the two provinces and many of the
villages in Quebec. He was especially fond of the wilderness and often travelled by
canoe on the Blanche, du Lièvre, and other noted eastern rivers. He went on several
occasions to the Maritimes and in 1872 he sailed by yacht along the lower north
shore of the St Lawrence River. That same year, while in the lower St Lawrence River
region, he took some photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway.
This undertaking led in 1875 to a commission from the railway to record the principal
structures along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax.
Commissions from other railways followed. In 1876 he photographed bridges on the
Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. In
1885 he went west along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as far as Rogers Pass
in British Columbia, where he took photographs of the mountains and the progress of construction.
In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a
photographic department which he was to set up and administer. His duties included
spending four months in the field each year. That summer he made his second trip
west, photographing extensively along the railway line as far as Victoria. He
continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography.
When Henderson died in 1913, his huge collection of glass negatives was stored in
the basement of his house. Today collections of his work are held at the National
Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal. 1
Henderson rarely visited the area around Press estate when he was younger. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
Henderson pursued a business career because it was what his family wanted. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
Henderson and Notman were surprised by the results of their 1865 experiment. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
There were many similarities between Henderson’s early landscapes and those of Notman. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
The studio that Henderson opened in 1866 was close to his home. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
Henderson gave up portraiture so that he could focus on taking photographs of scenery. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
When Henderson began work for the Intercolonial Railway, the Montreal to Halifax line had been finished. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
Henderson’s last work as a photographer was with the Canadian Pacific Railway. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Alexander Henderson Early life
• was born in Scotland in 1831 – father was a 9 …………………………
• trained as an accountant, emigrated to Canada in 1855
Start of a photographic career
• opened up a photographic studio in 1866
• took photos of city life, but preferred landscape photography
• people bought Henderson’s photos because photography took up considerable time and the
……………………… was heavy 10
• the photographs Henderson sold were 11 …………………………… or souvenirs
Travelling as a professional photographer
• travelled widely in Quebec and Ontario in 1870s and 1880s
• took many trips along eastern rivers in a 12…………………………..
• worked for Canadian railways between 1875 and 1897
• worked for CPR in 1885 and photographed the
…………………………… and 13 the railway at Rogers Pass
Back to the future of skyscraper design
Answers to the problem of excessive electricity use by skyscrapers and large public
buildings can be found in ingenious but forgotten architectural designs of the 19th and early-20th centuries A
The Recovery of Natural Environments in Architecture by Professor Alan Short is the
culmination of 30 years of research and award-winning green building design by
Short and colleagues in Architecture, Engineering, Applied Maths and Earth Sciences
at the University of Cambridge.
‘The crisis in building design is already here,’ said Short. ‘Policy makers think you can
solve energy and building problems with gadgets. You can’t. As global temperatures
continue to rise, we are going to continue to squander more and more energy on
keeping our buildings mechanically cool until we have run out of capacity.’ B
Short is calling for a sweeping reinvention of how skyscrapers and major public
buildings are designed – to end the reliance on sealed buildings which exist solely via
the ‘life support’ system of vast air conditioning units.
Instead, he shows it is entirely possible to accommodate natural ventilation and
cooling in large buildings by looking into the past, before the widespread introduction
of air conditioning systems, which were ‘relentlessly and aggressively marketed’ by their inventors. C
Short points out that to make most contemporary buildings habitable, they have to be
sealed and air conditioned. The energy use and carbon emissions this generates is
spectacular and largely unnecessary. Buildings in the West account for 40-50% of
electricity usage, generating substantial carbon emissions, and the rest of the world
is catching up at a frightening rate. Short regards glass, steel and air-conditioned
skyscrapers as symbols of status, rather than practical ways of meeting our requirements. D
Short’s book highlights a developing and sophisticated art and science of ventilating
buildings through the 19th and earlier-20th centuries, including the design of
ingeniously ventilated hospitals. Of particular interest were those built to the designs
of John Shaw Billings, including the first Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US city of Baltimore (1873-1889).
‘We spent three years digitally modelling Billings’ final designs,’ says Short. ‘We put
pathogens* in the airstreams, modelled for someone with tuberculosis (TB) coughing
in the wards and we found the ventilation systems in the room would have kept other patients safe from harm. —————-
* pathogens: microorganisms that can cause disease E
‘We discovered that 19th-century hospital wards could generate up to 24 air changes
an hour – that’s similar to the performance of a modern-day, computer-controlled
operating theatre. We believe you could build wards based on these principles now.
Single rooms are not appropriate for all patients. Communal wards appropriate for
certain patients – older people with dementia, for example – would work just as well
in today’s hospitals, at a fraction of the energy cost.’
Professor Short contends the mindset and skill-sets behind these designs have been
completely lost, lamenting the disappearance of expertly designed theatres, opera
houses, and other buildings where up to half the volume of the building was given
over to ensuring everyone got fresh air. F
Much of the ingenuity present in 19th-century hospital and building design was driven
by a panicked public clamouring for buildings that could protect against what was
thought to be the lethal threat of miasmas – toxic air that spread disease. Miasmas
were feared as the principal agents of disease and epidemics for centuries, and were
used to explain the spread of infection from the Middle Ages right through to the
cholera outbreaks in London and Paris during the 1850s. Foul air, rather than germs,
was believed to be the main driver of ‘hospital fever’, leading to disease and frequent
death. The prosperous steered clear of hospitals.
While miasma theory has been long since disproved, Short has for the last 30 years
advocated a return to some of the building design principles produced in its wake. G
Today, huge amounts of a building’s space and construction cost are given over to air
conditioning. ‘But I have designed and built a series of buildings over the past three
decades which have tried to reinvent some of these ideas and then measure what happens.
‘To go forward into our new low-energy, low-carbon future, we would be well advised
to look back at design before our high-energy, high-carbon present appeared. What
is surprising is what a rich legacy we have abandoned.’ H
Successful examples of Short’s approach include the Queen’s Building at De
Montfort University in Leicester. Containing as many as 2,000 staff and students, the
entire building is naturally ventilated, passively cooled and naturally lit, including the
two largest auditoria, each seating more than 150 people. The award-winning
building uses a fraction of the electricity of comparable buildings in the UK.
Short contends that glass skyscrapers in London and around the world will become a
liability over the next 20 or 30 years if climate modelling predictions and energy price
rises come to pass as expected. I
He is convinced that sufficiently cooled skyscrapers using the natural environment
can be produced in almost any climate. He and his team have worked on hybrid
buildings in the harsh climates of Beijing and Chicago – built with natural ventilation
assisted by back-up air conditioning – which, surprisingly perhaps, can be switched
off more than half the time on milder days and during the spring and autumn.
Short looks at how we might reimagine the cities, offices and homes of the future.
Maybe it’s time we changed our outlook. Write the correct letter, , A-I in boxes on your answer sheet. 14-18 14
why some people avoided hospitals in the 19th century 15
a suggestion that the popularity of tall buildings is linked to prestige 16
a comparison between the circulation of air in a 19th-century building and modern standards 17
how Short tested the circulation of air in a 19th-century building 18
an implication that advertising led to the large increase in the use of air conditioning Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Ventilation in 19th-century hospital wards
Professor Alan Short examined the work of John Shaw Billings, who influenced the architectural
……………………… of hospitals to ensure they had good ventilation. 19 He calculated that
……………………….. in the air coming from patients suffer 20 ing
from 21……………………… would not have harmed other patients. He also found that the air in
…………………………. in hospitals could change as often as in a 22
modern operating theatre. He suggests that energy use could be reduced by locating more patients in
………………………. areas. 23
A major reason for improving ventilation in 19th-century hospitals was the demand
from the 24 ………………………….. for protection against bad air, known
as 25 …………………………… These were blamed for the spread of disease for
hundreds of years, including epidemics of 26…………………………… in London and
Paris in the middle of the 19th century.
Why companies should welcome disorder A
Organisation is big business. Whether it is of our lives – all those inboxes and
calendars – or how companies are structured, a multi-billion dollar industry helps to meet this need.
We have more strategies for time management, project management and self-
organisation than at any other time in human history. We are told that we ought to
organize our company, our home life, our week, our day and even our sleep, all as a
means to becoming more productive. Every week, countless seminars and
workshops take place around the world to tell a paying public that they ought to
structure their lives in order to achieve this.
This rhetoric has also crept into the thinking of business leaders and entrepreneurs,
much to the delight of self-proclaimed perfectionists with the need to get everything
right. The number of business schools and graduates has massively increased over
the past 50 years, essentially teaching people how to organise well. B
Ironically, however, the number of business that fail has also steadily increased.
Work-related stress has increased. A large proportion of workers from all
demographics claim to be dissatisfied with the way their work is structured and the way they are managed.
This begs the question: what has gone wrong? Why is it that on paper the drive for
organisation seems a sure shot for increasing productivity, but in reality falls well short of what is expected? C
This has been a problem for a while now. Frederick Taylor was one of the forefathers
of scientific management. Writing in the first half of the 20th century, he designed a
number of principles to improve the efficiency of the work process, which have since
become widespread in modern companies. So the approach has been around for a while. D
New research suggests that this obsession with efficiency is misguided. The problem
is not necessarily the management theories or strategies we use to organise our
work; it’s the basic assumptions we hold in approaching how we work. Here it’s the
assumption that order is a necessary condition for productivity. This assumption has
also fostered the idea that disorder must be detrimental to organizational productivity.
The result is that businesses and people spend time and money organising
themselves for the sake of organising, rather than actually looking at the end goal
and usefulness of such an effort. E
What’s more, recent studies show that order actually has diminishing returns. Order
does increase productivity to a certain extent, but eventually the usefulness of the
process of organisation, and the benefit it yields, reduce until the point where any
further increase in order reduces productivity. Some argue that in a business, if the
cost of formally structuring something outweighs the benefit of doing it, then that
thing ought not to be formally structured. Instead, the resources involved can be better used elsewhere. F
In fact, research shows that, when innovating, the best approach is to create an
environment devoid of structure and hierarchy and enable everyone involved to
engage as one organic group. These environments can lead to new solutions that,
under conventionally structured environments (filled with bottlenecks in term of
information flow, power structures, rules, and routines) would never be reached. G
In recent times companies have slowly started to embrace this disorganisation. Many
of them embrace it in terms of perception (embracing the idea of disorder, as
opposed to fearing it) and in terms of process (putting mechanisms in place to reduce structure).
For example, Oticon, a large Danish manufacturer of hearing aids, used what it
called a ‘spaghetti’ structure in order to reduce the organisation’s rigid hierarchies.
This involved scrapping formal job titles and giving staff huge amounts of ownership
over their own time and projects. This approach proved to be highly successful
initially, with clear improvements in worker productivity in all facets of the business.
In similar fashion, the former chairman of General Electric embraced disorganisation,
putting forward the idea of the ‘boundaryless’ organisation. Again, it involves breaking
down the barriers between different parts of a company and encouraging virtual
collaboration and flexible working. Google and a number of other tech companies
have embraced (at least in part) these kinds of flexible structures, facilitated by
technology and strong company values which glue people together. H
A word of warning to others thinking of jumping on this bandwagon: the evidence so
far suggests disorder, much like order, also seems to have diminishing utility, and can
also have detrimental effects on performance if overused. Like order, disorder should
be embraced only so far as it is useful. But we should not fear it – nor venerate one
over the other. This research also shows that we should continually question whether
or not our existing assumptions work.
Reading Passage 3 has eight sections, A-H
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i- , in boxes ix on your answer sheet. 27-34 List of Headkings
i Complaints about the impact of a certain approach
ii Fundamental beliefs that are in fact incorrect
iii Early recommendations concerning business activities
iv Organisations that put a new approach into practice
v Companies that have suffered from changing their approach
vi What people are increasingly expected to do
vii How to achieve outcomes that are currently impossible
viii Neither approach guarantees continuous improvement
ix Evidence that a certain approach can have more disadvantages than advantages 27 Section A 28 Section B 29 Section C 30 Section D 31 Section E 32 Section F 33 Section G 34 Section H Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes on your answer sheet. 35-37 35
Numerous training sessions are aimed at people who feel they are not
………………………. enough. 36
Being organised appeals to people who regard themselves as
…………………………… 37
Many people feel ……………………….. with aspects of their work. 38
Both businesses and people aim at order without really considering its value. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 39
Innovation is most successful if the people involved have distinct roles. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 40
Google was inspired to adopt flexibility by the success of General Electric. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Cam IELTS 14 reading test 3
The concept of intelligence A
Looked at in one way, everyone knows what intelligence is; looked at in another way,
no one does. In other words, people all have unconscious notions – known as
‘implicit theories’ – of intelligence, but no one knows for certain what it actually is.
This chapter addresses how people conceptualize intelligence, whatever it may actually be.
But why should we even care what people think intelligence is, as opposed only to
valuing whatever it actually is? There are at least four reasons people’s conceptions of intelligence matter. B
First, implicit theories of intelligence drive the way in which people perceive and
evaluate their own intelligence and that of others. To better understand the judgments
people make about their own and others’ abilities, it is useful to learn about people’s
implicit theories. For example, parents’ implicit theories of their children’s language
development will determine at what ages they will be willing to make various
corrections in their children’s speech. More generally, parents’ implicit theories of
intelligence will determine at what ages they believe their children are ready to
perform various cognitive tasks. Job interviewers will make hiring decisions on the
basis of their implicit theories of intelligence. People will decide who to be friends with
on the basis of such theories. In sum, knowledge about implicit theories of
intelligence is important because this knowledge is so often used by people to make
judgments in the course of their everyday lives. C
Second, the implicit theories of scientific investigators ultimately give rise to their
explicit theories. Thus it is useful to find out what these implicit theories are. Implicit
theories provide a framework that is useful in defining the general scope of a
phenomenon – especially a not-well-understood phenomenon. These implicit
theories can suggest what aspects of the phenomenon have been more or less
attended to in previous investigations. D
Third, implicit theories can be useful when an investigator suspects that existing
explicit theories are wrong or misleading. If an investigation of implicit theories
reveals little correspondence between the extant implicit and explicit theories, the
implicit theories may be wrong. But the possibility also needs to be taken into
account that the explicit theories are wrong and in need of correction or
supplementation. For example, some implicit theories of intelligence suggest the
need for expansion of some of our explicit theories of the construct. E
Finally, understanding implicit theories of intelligence can help elucidate
developmental and cross-cultural differences. As mentioned earlier, people have
expectations for intellectual performances that differ for children of different ages.
How these expectations differ is in part a function of culture. For example,
expectations for children who participate in Western-style schooling are almost
certain to be different from those for children who do not participate in such schooling. F
I have suggested that there are three major implicit theories of how intelligence
relates to society as a whole (Sternberg, 1997). These might be called Hamiltonian,
Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian. These views are not based strictly, but rather, loosely,
on the philosophies of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson,
three great statesmen in the history of the United States. G
The Hamiltonian view, which is similar to the Platonic view, is that people are born
with different levels of intelligence and that those who are less intelligent need the
good offices of the more intelligent to keep them in line, whether they are called
government officials or, in Plato’s term, philosopher-kings. Herrnstein and Murray
(1994) seem to have shared this belief when they wrote about the emergence of a
cognitive (high-IQ) elite, which eventually would have to take responsibility for the
largely irresponsible masses of non-elite (low-IQ) people who cannot take care of
themselves. Left to themselves, the unintelligent would create, as they always have created, a kind of chaos. H
The Jeffersonian view is that people should have equal opportunities, but they do not
necessarily avail themselves equally of these opportunities and are not necessarily
equally rewarded for their accomplishments. People are rewarded for what they
accomplish, if given equal opportunity. Low achievers are not rewarded to the same
extent as high achievers. In the Jeffersonian view, the goal of education is not to
favor or foster an elite, as in the Hamiltonian tradition, but rather to allow children the
opportunities to make full use of the skills they have. My own views are similar to these (Sternberg, 1997). I
The Jacksonian view is that all people are equal, not only as human beings but in
terms of their competencies – that one person would serve as well as another in
government or on a jury or in almost any position of responsibility. In this view of
democracy, people are essentially intersubstitutable except for specialized skills, all
of which can be learned. In this view, we do not need or want any institutions that
might lead to favoring one group over another. J
Implicit theories of intelligence and of the relationship of intelligence to society
perhaps need to be considered more carefully than they have been because they
often serve as underlying presuppositions for explicit theories and even experimental
designs that are then taken as scientific contributions. Until scholars are able to
discuss their implicit theories and thus their assumptions, they are likely to miss the
point of what others are saying when discussing their explicit theories and their data
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes on your answer sheet. 1-3 1
information about how non-scientists’ assumptions about intelligence influence their behavior towards others 2
a reference to lack of clarity over the definition of intelligence 3
the point that a researcher’s implicit and explicit theories may be very different 4
Slow language development in children is likely to prove disappointing to their parents. YES NO NOT GIVEN 5
People’s expectations of what children should gain from education are universal. YES NO NOT GIVEN 6
Scholars may discuss theories without fully understanding each other. YES NO NOT GIVEN
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once. List of Theories A Hamiltonian B Jeffersonian C Jacksonian 7
It is desirable for the same possibilities to be open to everyone. 8
No section of society should have preferential treatment at the expense of another. 9
People should only gain benefits on the basis of what they actually achieve. 10
Variation in intelligence begins at birth. 11
The more intelligent people should be in positions of power. 12
Everyone can develop the same abilities. 13
People of low intelligence are likely to lead uncontrolled lives.
Saving bugs to find new drugs
Zoologist Ross Piper looks at the potential of insects in pharmaceutical research A
More drugs than you might think are derived from, or inspired by, compounds found
in living things. Looking to nature for the soothing and curing of our ailments is
nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. You only have to
look at other primates – such as the capuchin monkeys who rub themselves with
toxin-oozing millipedes to deter mosquitoes, or the chimpanzees who use noxious
forest plants to rid themselves of intestinal parasites – to realise that our ancient
ancestors too probably had a basic grasp of medicine. B
Pharmaceutical science and chemistry built on these ancient foundations and
perfected the extraction, characterization, modification and testing of these natural
products. Then, for a while, modern pharmaceutical science moved its focus away
from nature and into the laboratory, designing chemical compounds from scratch.
The main cause of this shift is that although there are plenty of promising chemical
compounds in nature, finding them is far from easy. Securing sufficient numbers of
the organism in question, isolating and characterizing the compounds of interest, and
producing large quantities of these compounds are all significant hurdles. C
Laboratory-based drug discovery has achieved varying levels of success, something
which has now prompted the development of new approaches focusing once again
on natural products. With the ability to mine genomes for useful compounds, it is now
evident that we have barely scratched the surface of nature’s molecular diversity.
This realization, together with several looming health crises, such as antibiotic
resistance, has put bioprospecting – the search for useful compounds in nature – firmly back on the map. D
Insects are the undisputed masters of the terrestrial domain, where they occupy
every possible niche. Consequently, they have a bewildering array of interactions
with other organisms, something which has driven the evolution of an enormous
range of very interesting compounds for defensive and offensive purposes. Their
remarkable diversity exceeds that of every other group of animals on the planet
combined. Yet even though insects are far and away the most diverse animals in
existence, their potential as sources of therapeutic compounds is yet to be realised. E
From the tiny proportion of insects that have been investigated, several promising
compounds have been identified. For example, alloferon, an antimicrobial compound
produced by blow fly larvae, is used as an antiviral and antitumor agent in South
Korea and Russia. The larvae of a few other insect species are being investigated for
the potent antimicrobial compounds they produce. Meanwhile, a compound from the venom of the wasp
has potential in cancer treatment. Polybia paulista F
Why is it that insects have received relatively little attention in bioprospecting? Firstly,
there are so many insects that, without some manner of targeted approach,
investigating this huge variety of species is a daunting task. Secondly, insects are
generally very small, and the glands inside them that secrete potentially useful
compounds are smaller still. This can make it difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of
the compound for subsequent testing. Thirdly, although we consider insects to be
everywhere, the reality of this ubiquity is vast numbers of a few extremely common
species. Many insect species are infrequently encountered and very difficult to rear in
captivity, which, again, can leave us with insufficient material to work with. G
My colleagues and I at Aberystwyth University in the UK have developed an
approach in which we use our knowledge of ecology as a guide to target our efforts.
The creatures that particularly interest us are the many insects that secrete powerful
poison for subduing prey and keeping it fresh for future consumption. There are even
more insects that are masters of exploiting filthy habitats, such as faeces and
carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by thousands of micro-organisms.
These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing with pathogenic
bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many
compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics. H
Although natural history knowledge points us in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the
problems associated with obtaining useful compounds from insects. Fortunately, it is
now possible to snip out the stretches of the insect’s DNA that carry the codes for the
interesting compounds and insert them into cell lines that allow larger quantities to be
produced. And although the road from isolating and characterizing compounds with
desirable qualities to developing a commercial product is very long and full of pitfalls,
the variety of successful animal-derived pharmaceuticals on the market
demonstrates there is a precedent here that is worth exploring. I
With every bit of wilderness that disappears, we deprive ourselves of potential
medicines. As much as I’d love to help develop a groundbreaking insect-derived
medicine, my main motivation for looking at insects in this way is conservation. I
sincerely believe that all species, however small and seemingly insignificant, have a
right to exist for their own sake. If we can shine a light on the darker recesses of
nature’s medicine cabinet, exploring the useful chemistry of the most diverse animals
on the planet, I believe we can make people think differently about the value of nature.
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes on your answer sheet. 14-20 14
mention of factors driving a renewed interest in natural medicinal compounds. 15
how recent technological advances have made insect research easier 16
examples of animals which use medicinal substances from nature 17
reasons why it is challenging to use insects in drug research 18
reference to how interest in drug research may benefit wildlife 19
a reason why nature-based medicines fell out of favour for a period 20
an example of an insect-derived medicine in use at the moment
Which TWO of the following make insects interesting for drug research?
A the huge number of individual insects in the world
B the variety of substances insects have developed to protect themselves
C the potential to extract and make use of insects’ genetic codes
D the similarities between different species of insect
E the manageable size of most insects 21 22
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Research at Aberystwyth University
Ross Piper and fellow zoologists at Aberystwyth University are using their expertise
in 23………………………… when undertaking bioprospecting with insects. They are
especially interested in the compounds that insects produce to overpower and
preserve their 24…………………………. They are also interested in compounds
which insects use to protect themselves from pathogenic bacteria and fungi found in
their 25………………………… Piper hopes that these substances will be useful in the
development of drugs such as 26…………………………….. The power of play
Virtually every child, the world over, plays. The drive to play is so intense that children
will do so in any circumstances, for instance when they have no real toys, or when
parents do not actively encourage the behavior. In the eyes of a young child, running,
pretending, and building are fun. Researchers and educators know that these playful
activities benefit the development of the whole child across social, cognitive,
physical, and emotional domains. Indeed, play is such an instrumental component to
healthy child development that the United Nation High Commission on Human Rights
(1989) recognized play as a fundamental right of every child.
Yet, while experts continue to expound a powerful argument for the importance of
play in children’s lives, the actual time children spend playing continues to decrease.
Today, children play eight hours less each week than their counterparts did two
decades ago (Elkind 2008). Under pressure of rising academic standards, play is
being replaced by test preparation in kindergartens and grade schools, and parents
who aim to give their preschoolers a leg up are led to believe that flashcards and
educational ‘toys’ are the path to success. Our society has created a false dichotomy between play and learning.
Through play, children learn to regulate their behavior, lay the foundations for later
learning in science and mathematics, figure out the complex negotiations of social
relationships, build a repertoire of creative problem-solving skills, and so much more.
There is also an important role for adults in guiding children through playful learning opportunities.
Full consensus on a formal definition of play continues to elude the researchers and
theorists who study it. Definitions range from discrete descriptions of various types of
play such as physical, construction, language, or symbolic play (Miler & Almon 2009),
to lists of broad criteria, based on observations and attitudes, that are meant to
capture the essence of all play behaviors (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983).
A majority of the contemporary definitions of play focus on several key criteria. The
founder of the National Institute for Play, Stuart Brown, has described play as
‘anything that spontaneously is done for its own sake’. More specifically, he says it
‘appears purposeless, produces pleasure and joy, [and] leads one to the next stage
of mastery’ (as quoted in Tippett 2008). Similarly, Miller and Almon (2009) say that
play includes ‘activities that are freely chosen and directed by children and arise from
intrinsic motivation’. Often, play is defined along a continuum as more or less playful
using the following set of behavioral and dispositional criteria (e.g. Rubin et al. 1983).
Play is pleasurable: Children must enjoy the activity or it is not play. It is intrinsically
motivated: Children engage in play simply for the satisfaction the behavior itself
brings. It has no extrinsically motivated function or goal. Play is process oriented:
When children play, the means are more important than the ends. It is freely chosen,
spontaneous and voluntary. If a child is pressured, they will likely not think of the
activity as play. Play is actively engaged: Players must be physically and/or mentally
involved in the activity. Play is non-literal. It involves make-believe.
According to this view, children’s playful behaviors can range in degree from 0% to
100% playful. Rubin and colleagues did not assign greater weight to any one
dimension in determining playfulness; however, other researchers have suggested
that process orientation and a lack of obvious functional purpose may be the most
important aspects of play (e.g. Pellegrini 2009).
From the perspective of a continuum, play can thus blend with other motives and
attitudes that are less playful, such as work. Unlike play, work is typically not viewed
as enjoyable and it is extrinsically motivated (i.e. it is goal oriented). Researcher Joan
Goodman (1994) suggested that hybrid forms of work and play are not a detriment to
learning; rather, they can provide optimal contexts for learning. For example, a child
may be engaged in a difficult, goal-directed activity set up by their teacher, but they
may still be actively engaged and intrinsically motivated. At this mid-point between
play and work, the child’s motivation, coupled with guidance from an adult, can create
robust opportunities for playful learning.
Critically, recent research supports the idea that adults can facilitate children’s
learning while maintaining a playful approach in interactions known as ‘guided play’
(Fisher et al. 2011). The adult’s role in play varies as a function of their educational
goals and the child’s developmental level (Hirsch-Pasek et al. 2009).
Guided play takes two forms. At a very basic level, adults can enrich the child’s
environment by providing objects or experiences that promote aspects of a
curriculum. In the more direct form of guided play, parents or other adults can support
children’s play by joining in the fun as a co-player, raising thoughtful questions,
commenting on children’s discoveries, or encouraging further exploration or new
facets to the child’s activity. Although playful learning can be somewhat structured, it
must also be child-centered (Nicolopolou et al. 2006). Play should stem from the child’s own desire.
Both free and guided play are essential elements in a child-centered approach to
playful learning. Intrinsically motivated free play provides the child with true
autonomy, while guided play is an avenue through which parents and educators can
provide more targeted learning experiences. In either case, play should be actively
engaged, it should be predominantly child-directed, and it must be fun.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet. List of Researchers A Elkind B Miller & Almon C Rubin et al. D Stuart Brown E Pellegrini F Joan Goodman G Hirsch-Pasek et al. 27
Play can be divided into a number of separate categories. 28
Adults’ intended goals affect how they play with children. 29
Combining work with play may be the best way for children to learn. 30
Certain elements of play are more significant than others. . 31
Activities can be classified on a scale of playfulness. 32
Children need toys in order to play. YES NO NOT GIVEN 33
It is a mistake to treat play and learning as separate types of activities. YES NO NOT GIVEN 34
Play helps children to develop their artistic talents. YES NO NOT GIVEN 35
Researchers have agreed on a definition of play. YES NO NOT GIVEN 36
Work and play differ in terms of whether or not they have a target. YES NO NOT GIVEN Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Guided play
In the simplest form of guided play, an adult contributes to the environment in which
the child is playing. Alternatively, an adult can play with a child and develop the play, for instance by
…………………….. the child to investigate differe 37 nt aspects of their
game. Adults can help children to learn through play, and may make the activity
rather structured, but it should still be based on the child’s 38…………………………. to play.
Play without the intervention of adults gives children real 39………………………….; with adults, play can be
………………………… at particular goals. However 40 , all
forms of play should be an opportunity for children to have fun.
Cam IELTS 14 reading test 4
The secret of staying young
Pheidole dentata, a native ant of the south-eastern U.S., isn’t immortal. But scientists
have found that it doesn’t seem to show any signs of aging. Old worker ants can do
everything just as well as the youngsters, and their brains appear just as sharp. ‘We
get a picture that these ants really don’t decline,’ says Ysabel Giraldo, who studies
the ants for her doctoral thesis at Boston University.
Such age-defying feats are rare in the animal kingdom. Naked mole rats can live for
almost 30 years and stay fit for nearly their entire lives. They can still reproduce even
when old, and they never get cancer. But the vast majority of animals deteriorate with
age just like people do. Like the naked mole rat, ants are social creatures that usually
live in highly organised colonies. ‘It’s this social complexity that makes P.
dentata useful for studying aging in people,’ says Giraldo, now at the California
Institute of Technology. Humans are also highly social, a trait that has been
connected to healthier aging. By contrast, most animal studies of aging use mice,
worms or fruit flies, which all lead much more isolated lives.
In the lab, P. dentata worker ants typically live for around 140 days. Giraldo focused
on ants at four age ranges: 20 to 22 days, 45 to 47 days, 95 to 97 days and 120 to
122 days. Unlike all previous studies, which only estimated how old the ants were,
her work tracked the ants from the time the pupae became adults, so she knew their
exact ages. Then she put them through a range of tests.
Giraldo watched how well the ants took care of the young of the colony, recording
how often each ant attended to, carried and fed them. She compared how well 20-
day-old and 95-day-old ants followed the telltale scent that the insects usually leave
to mark a trail to food. She tested how ants responded to light and also measured
how active they were by counting how often ants in a small dish walked across a line.
And she experimented with how ants react to live prey: a tethered fruit fly. Giraldo
expected the older ants to perform poorly in all these tasks. But the elderly insects
were all good caretakers and trail-followers – the 95-day-old ants could track the
scent even longer than their younger counterparts. They all responded do light well,
and the older ants were more active. And when it came to reacting to prey, the older
ants attacked the poor fruit fly just as aggressively as the young ones did, flaring their
mandibles or pulling at the fly’s legs.
Then Giraldo compared the brains of 20-day-old and 95-day-ole ants, identifying any
cells that were close to death. She saw no major differences with age, nor was there
any difference in the location of the dying cells, showing that age didn’t seem to affect
specific brain functions. Ants and other insects have structures in their brains called
mushroom bodies, which are important for processing information, learning and
memory. She also wanted to see if aging affects the density of synaptic complexes
within these structures – regions where neurons come together. Again, the answer
was no. what was more, the old ants didn’t experience any drop in the levels of either
serotonin or dopamine – brain chemicals whose decline often coincides with aging. In
humans, for example, a decrease in serotonin has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
‘This is the first time anyone has looked at both behavioral and neural changes in
these ants so thoroughly,’ says Giraldo, who recently published the findings in
the Proceeding of the Royal Society B. Scientists have looked at some similar
aspects in bees, but the results of recent bee studies were mixed – some studies
showed age-related declines, which biologists call senescence, and others didn’t.
‘For now, the study raises more questions than it answers,’ Giraldo says, ‘including
how P. dentata stays in such good shape.’
Also, if the ants don’t deteriorate with age, why do they die at all? Out in the wild, the
ants probably don’t live for a full 140 days thanks to predators, disease and just being
in an environment that’s much harsher than the comforts of the lab. ‘The lucky ants
that do live into old age may suffer a steep decline just before dying,’ Giraldo says,
but she can’t say for sure because her study wasn’t designed to follow an ant’s final moments.
‘It will be important to extend these findings to other species of social insects,’ says
Gene E. Robinson, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. This ant might be unique, or it might represent a broader pattern among
other social bugs with possible clues to the science of aging in larger animals. Either
way, it seems that for these ants, age really doesn’t matter.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Ysabel Giraldo’s research
Focused on a total of 1………………………….. different age groups of ants, analyzing Behaviour:
• how well ants looked after their 2 …………………………..
• their ability to locate 3………………………… using a scent trail
• the effect that 4………………………….. had on them
• how 5…………………………. They attacked prey Brains:
• comparison between age and the 6…………………………… of dying cells in the brains of ants
• condition of synaptic complexes (areas in which 7…………………………… meet)
in the brain’s ‘mushroom bodies’
• level of two 8………………………….. in the brain associated with ageing 9
Pheidole dentata ants are the only known animals which remain active for almost their whole lives. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
Ysabel Giraldo was the first person to study Pheidole dentata ants using precise data about the insects’ ages. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
The ants in Giraldo’s experiments behaved as she had predicted that they would. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
The recent studies of bees used different methods of measuring age-related decline. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
Pheidole dentata ants kept in laboratory conditions tend to live longer lives. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Why zoos are good
Scientist David Hone makes the case for zoos A
In my view, it is perfectly possible for many species of animals living in zoos or
wildlife parks to have a quality of life as high as, or higher than, in the wild. Animals in
good zoos get a varied and high-quality diet with all the supplements required, and
any illnesses they might have will be treated. Their movement might be somewhat
restricted, but they have a safe environment in which to live, and they are spared
bullying and social ostracism by others of their kind. They do not suffer from the
threat or stress of predators, or the irritation and pain of parasites or injuries. The
average captive animal will have a greater life expectancy compared with its wild
counterpart, and will not die of drought, of starvation or in the jaws of a predator. A lot
of very nasty things happen to truly ‘wild’ animals that simply don’t happen in good
zoos, and to view a life that is ‘free’ as one that is automatically ‘good’ is, I think, an
error. Furthermore, zoos serve several key purposes. B
Firstly, zoos aid conservation. Colossal numbers of species are becoming extinct
across the world, and many more are increasingly threatened and therefore risk
extinction. Moreover, some of these collapses have been sudden, dramatic and
unexpected, or were simply discovered very late in the day. A species protected in
captivity can be bred up to provide a reservoir population against a population crash
or extinction in the wild. A good number of species only exist in captivity, with many of
these living in zoos. Still more only exist in the wild because they have been
reintroduced from zoos, or have wild populations that have been boosted by captive
bred animals. Without these efforts there would be fewer species alive today.
Although reintroduction successes are few and far between, the numbers are
increasing, and the very fact that species have been saved or reintroduced as a
result of captive breeding proves the value of such initiatives. C
Zoos also provide education. Many children and adults, especially those in cities, will
never see a wild animal beyond a fox or pigeon. While it is true that television
documentaries are becoming ever more detailed and impressive, and many natural
history specimens are on display in museums, there really is nothing to compare with
seeing a living creature in the flesh, hearing it, smelling it, watching what it does and
having the time to absorb details. That alone will bring a greater understanding and
perspective to many, and hopefully give them a greater appreciation for wildlife,
conservation efforts and how they can contribute. D
In addition to this, there is also the education that can take place in zoos through
signs, talks and presentations which directly communicate information to visitors
about the animals they are seeing and their place in the world. This was an area
where zoos used to be lacking, but they are now increasingly sophisticated in their
communication and outreach work. Many zoos also work directly to educate
conservation workers in other countries, or send their animal keepers abroad to
contribute their knowledge and skills to those working in zoos and reserves, thereby
helping to improve conditions and reintroductions all over the world. E
Zoos also play a key role in research. If we are to save wild species and restore and
repair ecosystems we need to know about how key species live, act and react. Being
able to undertake research on animals in zoos where there is less risk and fewer
variables means real changes can be effected on wild populations. Finding out about,
for example, the oestrus cycle of an animal of its breeding rate helps us manage wild
populations. Procedures such as capturing and moving at-risk or dangerous
individuals are bolstered by knowledge gained in zoos about doses for anaesthetics,
and by experience in handling and transporting animals. This can make a real
difference to conservation efforts and to the reduction of human-animal conflicts, and
can provide a knowledge base for helping with the increasing threats of habitat
destruction and other problems. F
In conclusion, considering the many ongoing global threats to the environment, it is
hard for me to see zoos as anything other than essential to the long-term survival of
numerous species. They are vital not just in terms of protecting animals, but as a
means of learning about them to aid those still in the wild, as well as educating and
informing the general population about these animals and their world so that they can
assist or at least accept the need to be more environmentally conscious. Without
them, the world would be, and would increasingly become, a much poorer place.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet. 14
a reference to how quickly animal species can die out 15
reasons why it is preferable to study animals in captivity rather than in the wild 16
mention of two ways of learning about animals other than visiting them in zoos 17
reasons why animals in zoos may by healthier than those in the wild 18
An animal is likely to live longer in a zoo than in the wild TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 19
There are some species in zoos which can no longer be found in the wild. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 20
Improvements in the quality of TV wildlife documentaries have resulted in increased numbers of zoo visitors. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 21
Zoos have always excelled at transmitting information about animals to the public. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 22
Studying animals in zoos is less stressful for the animals than studying them in the wild. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Which TWO of the following are stated about zoo staff in the text?
A Some take part in television documentaries about animals
B Some travel to overseas locations to join teams in zoos.
C Some get experience with species in the wild before taking up zoo jobs.
D Some teach people who are involved with conservation projects.
E Some specialise in caring for species which are under threat. 23 24
Which TWO of these beliefs about zoos does the writer mention in the text?
A They can help children overcome their fears of wild animals.
B They can increase public awareness of environmental issues.
C They can provide employment for a range of professional people.
D They can generate income to support wildlife conservation projects.
E They can raise animals which can later be released into the wild. 25 26
How Bad Is Ocean Garbage, Really?
Chelsea Rochman, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, has been trying
to answer a dismal question: Is everything terrible, or are things just very, very bad?
Rochman is a member of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis’s
marine-debris working group, a collection of scientists who study, among other
things, the growing problem of marine debris, also known as ocean trash. Plenty of
studies have sounded alarm bells about the state of marine debris; in a recent paper
published in the journal Ecology, Rochman and her colleagues set out to determine
how many of those perceived risks are real.
Often, Rochman says, scientists will end a paper by speculating about the broader
impacts of what they’ve found. For example, a study could show that certain seabirds
eat plastic bags, and go on to warn that whole bird populations are at risk of dying
out. ‘But the truth was that nobody had yet tested those perceived threats,’ Rochman
says. ‘There wasn’t a lot of information.’
Rochman and her colleagues examined more than a hundred papers on the impacts
of marine debris that were published through 2013. Within each paper, they asked
what threats scientists had studied – 366 perceived threats in all – and what they’d actually found.
In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash were proven true. In the
remaining cases, the working group found the studies had weaknesses in design and
content which affected the validity of their conclusions – they lacked a control group,
for example, or used faulty statistics.
Strikingly, Rochman says, only one well-designed study failed to find the effect it was
looking for, an investigation of mussels ingesting microscopic bits. The plastic moved
from the mussels’ stomachs to their bloodstreams, scientists found, and stayed there
for weeks – but didn’t seem to stress out the shellfish.
While mussels may be fine eating trash, though, the analysis also gave a clearer
picture of the many ways that ocean debris is bothersome.
Within the studies they looked at, most of the proven threats came from plastic
debris, rather than other materials like metal or wood. Most of the dangers also
involved large pieces of debris – animals getting entangled in trash, for example, or
eating it and severely injuring themselves.
But a lot of ocean debris is ‘microplastic’, or pieces smaller than five millimeters.
These may be ingredients used in cosmetics and toiletries, fibers shed by synthetic
clothing in the wash, or eroded remnants of larger debris. Compared to the number
of studies investigating large-scale debris, Rochman’s group found little research on
the effects of these tiny bits. ‘There are a lot of open questions still for microplastic,’
Rochman says, though she notes that more papers on the subject have been
published since 2013, the cutoff point for the group’s analysis.
There are also, she adds, a lot of open questions about the ways that ocean debris
can lead to sea-creature death. Many studies have looked at how plastic affects an
individual animal, or that animal’s tissues or cells, rather than whole populations. And
in the lab, scientists often use higher concentrations of plastic than what’s really in
the ocean. None of that tells us how many birds or fish or sea turtles could die from
plastic pollution – or how deaths in one species could affect that animal’s predators, or the rest of the ecosystem.
‘We need to be asking more ecologically relevant questions,’ Rochman says. Usually,
scientists don’t know exactly how disasters such as a tanker accidentally spilling its
whole cargo of oil and polluting huge areas of the ocean will affect the environment
until after they’ve happened. ‘We don’t ask the right questions early enough,’ she
says. But if ecologists can understand how the slow-moving effect of ocean trash is
damaging ecosystems, they might be able to prevent things from getting worse.
Asking the right questions can help policy makers, and the public, figure out where to
focus their attention. The problems that look or sound most dramatic may not be the
best places to start. For example, the name of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ – a
collection of marine debris in the northern Pacific Ocean – might conjure up a vast,
floating trash island. In reality though, much of the debris is tiny or below the surface;
a person could sail through the area without seeing any trash at all. A Dutch group
called ‘The Ocean Cleanup’ is currently working on plans to put mechanical devices
in the Pacific Garbage Patch and similar areas to suck up plastic. But a recent paper
used simulations to show that strategically positioning the cleanup devices closer to
shore would more effectively reduce pollution over the long term.
‘I think clearing up some of these misperceptions is really important,’ Rochman says.
Among scientists as well as in the media, she says, ‘A lot of the images about
strandings and entanglement and all of that cause the perception that plastic debris
is killing everything in the ocean.’ Interrogating the existing scientific literature can
help ecologists figure out which problems really need addressing, and which ones
they’d be better off – like the mussels – absorbing and ignoring. 27
Rochman and her colleagues were the first people to research the problem of marine debris. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 28
The creatures most in danger from ocean trash are certain seabirds. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 29
The studies Rochman has reviewed have already proved that populations of some
birds will soon become extinct. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 30
Rochman analysed papers on the different kinds of danger caused by ocean trash. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 31.
Most of the research analysed by Rochman and her colleagues was badly designed. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 32
One study examined by Rochman was expecting to find that mussels were harmed by eating plastic. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 33
Some mussels choose to eat plastic in preference to their natural diet. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Findings related to marine debris
Studies of marine debris found the biggest threats were
• plastic (not metal or wood)
• bits of debris that were 34………………………….. (harmful to animals)
There was little research into
…………………………. e.g. from synthetic fibres. 35
Drawbacks of the studies examined
• most of them focused on individual animals, not entire 36 ………………………..
• the 37…………………….. of plastic used in the lab did not always reflect those in the ocean
• there was insufficient information on
– numbers of animals which could be affected
– the impact of a reduction in numbers on the
……………………….. of that 38 species
– the impact on the ecosystem
Rochman says more information is needed on the possible impact of
future 39………………………… (e.g. involving oil). 40
What would be the best title for this passage?
A. Assessing the threat of marine debris
B. Marine debris: who is to blame?
C. A new solution to the problem of marine debris
D. Marine debris: the need for international action
Cam IELTS 15 reading test 1
Nutmeg – a valuable spice The nutmeg tree,
, is a large evergreen tree native to Southeast Myristica fragrans
Asia. Until the late 18th century, it only grew in one place in the world: a small group
of islands in the Banda Sea, part of the Moluccas – or Spice Islands – in northeastern
Indonesia. The tree is thickly branched with dense foliage of tough, dark green oval
leaves, and produces small, yellow, bell-shaped flowers and pale yellow pear-shaped
fruits. The fruit is encased in a flesh husk. When the fruit is ripe, this husk splits into
two halves along a ridge running the length of the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny
seed, 2-3 cm long by about 2 cm across, surrounded by a lacy red or crimson
covering called an ‘aril’. These are the sources of the two spices nutmeg and mace,
the former being produced from the dried seed and the latter from the aril.
Nutmeg was a highly prized and costly ingredient in European cuisine in the Middle
Ages, and was used as a flavouring, medicinal, and preservative agent. Throughout
this period, the Arabs were the exclusive importers of the spice to Europe. They sold
nutmeg for high prices to merchants based in Venice, but they never revealed the
exact location of the source of this extremely valuable commodity. The Arab-Venetian
dominance of the trade finally ended in 1512, when the Portuguese reached the
Banda Islands and began exploiting its precious resources.
Always in danger of competition from neighbouring Spain, the Portuguese began
subcontracting their spice distribution to Dutch traders. Profits began to flow into the
Netherlands, and the Dutch commercial fleet swiftly grew into one of the largest in
the world. The Dutch quietly gained control of most of the shipping and trading of
spices in Northern Europe. Then, in 1580, Portugal fell under Spanish rule, and by
the end of the 16th century the Dutch found themselves locked out of the market. As
prices for pepper, nutmeg, and other spices soared across Europe, they decided to fight back.
In 1602, Dutch merchants founded the VOC, a trading corporation better known as
the Dutch East India Company. By 1617, the VOC was the richest commercial
operation in the world. The company had 50,000 employees worldwide, with a private
army of 30,000 men and a fleet of 200 ships. At the same time, thousands of people
across Europe were dying of the plague, a highly contagious and deadly disease.
Doctors were desperate for a way to stop the spread of this disease, and they
decided nutmeg held the cure. Everybody wanted nutmeg, and many were willing to
spare no expense to have it. Nutmeg bought for a few pennies in Indonesia could be
sold for 68,000 times its original cost on the streets of London. The only problem was
the short supply. And that’s where the Dutch found their opportunity.
The Banda Islands were ruled by local sultans who insisted on maintaining a neutral
trading policy towards foreign powers. This allowed them to avoid the presence of
Portuguese or Spanish troops on their soil, but it also left them unprotected from
other invaders. In 1621, the Dutch arrived and took over. Once securely in control of
the Bandas, the Dutch went to work protecting their new investment. They
concentrated all nutmeg production into a few easily guarded areas, uprooting and
destroying any trees outside the plantation zones. Anyone caught growing a nutmeg
seedling or carrying seeds without the proper authority was severely punished. In
addition, all exported nutmeg was covered with lime to make sure there was no
chance a fertile seed which could be grown elsewhere would leave the islands. There
was only one obstacle to Dutch domination. One of the Banda Islands, a sliver of
land called Run, only 3 km long by less than 1 km wide, was under the control of the
British. After decades of fighting for control of this tiny island, the Dutch and British
arrived at a compromise settlement, the Treaty of Breda, in 1667. Intent on securing
their hold over every nutmeg-producing island, the Dutch offered a trade: if the British
would give them the island of Run, they would in turn give Britain a distant and much
less valuable island in North America. The British agreed. That other island was
Manhattan, which is how New Amsterdam became New York. The Dutch now had a
monopoly over the nutmeg trade which would last for another century.
Then, in 1770, a Frenchman named Pierre Poivre successfully smuggled nutmeg
plants to safety in Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa. Some of these were
later exported to the Caribbean where they thrived, especially on the island of
Grenada. Next, in 1778, a volcanic eruption in the Banda region caused a tsunami
that wiped out half the nutmeg groves. Finally, in 1809, the British returned to
Indonesia and seized the Banda Islands by force. They returned the islands to the
Dutch in 1817, but not before transplanting hundreds of nutmeg seedlings to
plantations in several locations across southern Asia. The Dutch nutmeg monopoly was over.
Today, nutmeg is grown in Indonesia, the Caribbean, India, Malaysia, Papua New
Guinea and Sri Lanka, and world nutmeg production is estimated to average
between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes per year.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The nutmeg tree and fruit
● the leaves of the tree are 1……………………. in shape
● the 2……………………. surrounds the fruit and breaks open when the fruit is ripe
● the 3……………………. is used to produce the spice nutmeg
● the covering known as the aril is used to produce 4……………………..
● the tree has yellow flowers and fruit 5
In the Middle Ages, most Europeans knew where nutmeg was grown. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
The VOC was the world’s first major trading company. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
Following the Treaty of Breda, the Dutch had control of all the islands where nutmeg grew. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Middle Ages Nutmeg was brought to Europe by the 8……………
16th century European nations took control of the nutmeg trade
17th century Demand for nutmeg grew, as it was
believed to be effective against the
disease known as the 9…………… The Dutch
– took control of the Banda Islands
– restricted nutmeg production to a few areas – put on nutmeg to avoid 10……………
it being cultivated outside the islands
– finally obtained the island
of 11…………… from the British Late 18th
1770 – nutmeg plants were secretly taken century to 12……………
1778 – half the Banda Islands’ nutmeg plantations were destroyed by a …………… 13 Driverless cars A
The automotive sector is well used to adapting to automation in manufacturing. The
implementation of robotic car manufacture from the 1970s onwards led to significant
cost savings and improvements in the reliability and flexibility of vehicle mass
production. A new challenge to vehicle production is now on the horizon and, again, it
comes from automation. However, this time it is not to do with the manufacturing
process, but with the vehicles themselves.
Research projects on vehicle automation are not new. Vehicles with limited self-
driving capabilities have been around for more than 50 years, resulting in significant
contributions towards driver assistance systems. But since Google announced in
2010 that it had been trialling self-driving cars on the streets of California, progress in
this field has quickly gathered pace. B
There are many reasons why technology is advancing so fast. One frequently cited
motive is safety; indeed, research at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory has
demonstrated that more than 90 percent of road collisions involve human error as a
contributory factor, and it is the primary cause in the vast majority. Automation may
help to reduce the incidence of this.
Another aim is to free the time people spend driving for other purposes. If the vehicle
can do some or all of the driving, it may be possible to be productive, to socialise or
simply to relax while automation systems have responsibility for safe control of the
vehicle. If the vehicle can do the driving, those who are challenged by existing
mobility models – such as older or disabled travellers – may be able to enjoy
significantly greater travel autonomy. C
Beyond these direct benefits, we can consider the wider implications for transport
and society, and how manufacturing processes might need to respond as a result. At
present, the average car spends more than 90 percent of its life parked. Automation
means that initiatives for car-sharing become much more viable, particularly in urban
areas with significant travel demand. If a significant proportion of the population
choose to use shared automated vehicles, mobility demand can be met by far fewer vehicles. D
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology investigated automated mobility in
Singapore, finding that fewer than 30 percent of the vehicles currently used would be
required if fully automated car sharing could be implemented. If this is the case, it
might mean that we need to manufacture far fewer vehicles to meet demand.
However, the number of trips being taken would probably increase, partly because
empty vehicles would have to be moved from one customer to the next.
Modelling work by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
suggests automated vehicles might reduce vehicle ownership by 43 percent, but that
vehicles’ average annual mileage double as a result. As a consequence, each vehicle
would be used more intensively, and might need replacing sooner. This faster rate of
turnover may mean that vehicle production will not necessarily decrease E
Automation may prompt other changes in vehicle manufacture. If we move to a
model where consumers are tending not to own a single vehicle but to purchase
access to a range of vehicle through a mobility provider, drivers will have the freedom
to select one that best suits their needs for a particular journey, rather than making a
compromise across all their requirements.
Since, for most of the time, most of the seats in most cars are unoccupied, this may
boost production of a smaller, more efficient range of vehicles that suit the needs of
individuals. Specialised vehicles may then be available for exceptional journeys, such
as going on a family camping trip or helping a son or daughter move to university. F
There are a number of hurdles to overcome in delivering automated vehicles to our
roads. These include the technical difficulties in ensuring that the vehicle works
reliably in the infinite range of traffic, weather and road situations it might encounter;
the regulatory challenges in understanding how liability and enforcement might
change when drivers are no longer essential for vehicle operation; and the societal
changes that may be required for communities to trust and accept automated
vehicles as being a valuable part of the mobility landscape. G
It’s clear that there are many challenges that need to be addressed but, through
robust and targeted research, these can most probably be conquered within the next
10 years. Mobility will change in such potentially significant ways and in association
with so many other technological developments, such as telepresence and virtual
reality, that it is hard to make concrete predictions about the future. However, one
thing is certain: change is coming, and the need to be flexible in response to this will
be vital for those involved in manufacturing the vehicles that will deliver future mobility.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet. 14
reference to the amount of time when a car is not in use 15
mention of several advantages of driverless vehicles for individual road-users 16
reference to the opportunity of choosing the most appropriate vehicle for each trip 17
an estimate of how long it will take to overcome a number of problems 18
a suggestion that the use of driverless cars may have no effect on the number of vehicles manufactured
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
The impact of driverless cars
Figures from the Transport Research Laboratory indicate that most motor accidents
are partly due to 19……………………., so the introduction of driverless vehicles will
result in greater safety. In addition to the direct benefits of automation, it may bring
other advantages. For example, schemes for 20………………………. will be more
workable, especially in towns and cities, resulting in fewer cars on the road.
According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, there could be a 43 percent drop in
…………………….. of cars. However 21 , this would mean that the yearly
…………………….. of each car would, on average, be twice 22
as high as it currently is. this would lead to a higher turnover of vehicles, and
therefore no reduction in automotive manufacturing.
Which TWO benefits of automated vehicles does the writer mention?
A Car travellers could enjoy considerable cost savings.
B It would be easier to find parking spaces in urban areas.
C Travellers could spend journeys doing something other than driving.
D People who find driving physically difficult could travel independently.
E A reduction in the number of cars would mean a reduction in pollution. 23 24
Which TWO challenges to automated vehicle development does the writer mention?
A making sure the general public has confidence in automated vehicles
B managing the pace of transition from conventional to automated vehicles
C deciding how to compensate professional drivers who become redundant
D setting up the infrastructure to make roads suitable for automated vehicles
E getting automated vehicles to adapt to various different driving conditions 25 26 What is exploration?
We are all explores. Our desire to discover, and then share that new-found
knowledge, is part of what makes us human – indeed, this has played an important
part in our success as a species. Long before the first caveman slumped down
beside the fire and grunted news that there were plenty of wildebeest over yonder,
our ancestors had learnt the value of sending out scouts to investigate the unknown.
This questing nature of ours undoubtedly helped our species spread around the
globe, just as it nowadays no doubt helps the last nomadic Penan maintain their
existence in the depleted forests of Borneo, and a visitor negotiate the subways of New York.
Over the years, we’ve come to think of explorers as a peculiar breed – different from
the rest of us, different from those of us who are merely ‘well travelled’, even; and
perhaps there is a type of person more suited to seeking out the new, a type of
caveman more inclined to risk venturing out. That, however, doesn’t take away from
the fact that we all have this enquiring instinct, even today; and that in all sorts of
professions – whether artist, marine biologist or astronomer – borders of the
unknown are being tested each day.
Thomas Hardy set some of his novels in Egdon Heath, a fictional area of uncultivated
land, and used the landscape to suggest the desires and fears of his characters. He
is delving into matters we all recognise because they are common to humanity. This
is surely an act of exploration, and into a world as remote as the author chooses.
Explorer and travel writer Peter Fleming talks of the moment when the explorer
returns to the existence he has left behind with his loved ones. The traveller ‘who has
for weeks or months seen himself only as a puny and irrelevant alien crawling
laboriously over a country in which he has no roots and no background, suddenly
encounters his other self, a relatively solid figure, with a place in the minds of certain people’.
In this book about the exploration of the earth’s surface, I have confined myself to
those whose travels were real and who also aimed at more than personal discovery.
But that still left me with another problem: the word ‘explorer’ has become associated
with a past era. We think back to a golden age, as if exploration peaked somehow in
the 19th century – as if the process of discovery is now on the decline, though the
truth is that we have named only one and a half million of this planet’s species, and
there may be more than 10 million – and that’s not including bacteria. We have
studied only 5 per cent of the species we know. We have scarcely mapped the ocean
floors, and know even less about ourselves; we fully understand the workings of only 10 per cent of our brains.
Here is how some of today’s ‘explorers’ define the word. Ran Fiennes, dubbed the
‘greatest living explorer’, said, ‘An explorer is someone who has done something that
no human has done before – and also done something scientifically useful.’ Chris
Bonington, a leading mountaineer, felt exploration was to be found in the act of
physically touching the unknown: ‘You have to have gone somewhere new.’ Then
Robin Hanbury-Tenison, a campaigner on behalf of remote so-called ‘tribal’ peoples,
said, ‘A traveller simply records information about some far-off world, and reports back; but an explorer the world.’ W changes
ilfred Thesiger, who crossed Arabia’s
Empty Quarter in 1946, and belongs to an era of unmechanised travel now lost to the
rest of us, told me, ‘If I’d gone across by camel when I could have gone by car, it
would have been a stunt.’ To him, exploration meant bringing back information from a
remote place regardless of any great self-discovery.
Each definition is slightly different – and tends to reflect the field of endeavour of
each pioneer. It was the same whoever I asked: the prominent historian would say
exploration was a thing of the past, the cutting-edge scientist would say it was of the
present. And so on. They each set their own particular criteria; the common factor in
their approach being that they all had, unlike many of us who simply enjoy travel or
discovering new things, both a very definite objective from the outset and also a
desire to record their findings.
I’d best declare my own bias. As a writer, I’m interested in the exploration of ideas.
I’ve done a great many expeditions and each one was unique. I’ve lived for months
alone with isolated groups of people all around the world, even two ‘uncontacted
tribes’. But none of these things is of the slightest interest to anyone unless, through
my books, I’ve found a new slant, explored a new idea. Why? Because the world has
moved on. The time has long passed for the great continental voyages – another
walk to the poles, another crossing of the Empty Quarter. We know how the land
surface of our planet lies; exploration of it is now down to the details – the habits of
microbes, say, or the grazing behaviour of buffalo. Aside from the deep sea and deep
underground, it’s the era of specialists. However, this is to disregard the role the
human mind has in conveying remote places; and this is what interests me: how a
fresh interpretation, even of a well-travelled route, can give its readers new insights. 27
The writer refers to visitors to New York to illustrate the point that
A. exploration is an intrinsic element of being human.
B. most people are enthusiastic about exploring.
C. exploration can lead to surprising results.
D. most people find exploration daunting. 28
According to the second paragraph, what is the writer’s view of explorers?
A. Their discoveries have brought both benefits and disadvantages.
B. Their main value is in teaching others.
C. They act on an urge that is common to everyone.
D. They tend to be more attracted to certain professions than to others. 29
The writer refers to a description of Egdon Heath to suggest that
A. Hardy was writing about his own experience of exploration.
B. Hardy was mistaken about the nature of exploration.
C. Hardy’s aim was to investigate people’s emotional states.
D. Hardy’s aim was to show the attraction of isolation. 30
In the fourth paragraph, the writer refers to ‘a golden age’ to suggest that
A. the amount of useful information produced by exploration has decreased.
B. fewer people are interested in exploring than in the 19th century.
C. recent developments have made exploration less exciting.
D. we are wrong to think that exploration is no longer necessary. 31
In the sixth paragraph, when discussing the definition of exploration, the writer argues that
A. people tend to relate exploration to their own professional interests.
B. certain people are likely to misunderstand the nature of exploration.
C. the generally accepted definition has changed over time.
D. historians and scientists have more valid definitions than the general public. 32
In the last paragraph, the writer explains that he is interested in
A. how someone’s personality is reflected in their choice of places to visit.
B. the human ability to cast new light on places that may be familiar.
C. how travel writing has evolved to meet changing demands.
D. the feelings that writers develop about the places that they explore. List of Explorers A Peter Fleming B Ran Fiennes C Chris Bonington D Robin Hanbury-Tenison E Wilfred Thesiger 33
He referred to the relevance of the form of transport used. 34
He described feelings on coming back home after a long journey. 35
He worked for the benefit of specific groups of people. 36
He did not consider learning about oneself an essential part of exploration. 37
He defined exploration as being both unique and of value to others.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. The writer’s own bias
The writer has experience of a large number of 38………………., and was the first
stranger that certain previously 39………………… people had encountered. He
believes there is no need for further exploration of Earth’s 40…………………., except
to answer specific questions such as how buffalo eat.
Cam IELTS 15 reading test 2
Could urban engineers learn from dance? A
The way we travel around cities has a major impact on whether they are sustainable.
Transportation is estimated to account for 30% of energy consumption in most of the
world’s most developed nations, so lowering the need for energy-using vehicles is
essential for decreasing the environmental impact of mobility. But as more and more
people move to cities, it is important to think about other kinds of sustainable travel
too. The ways we travel affect our physical and mental health, our social lives, our
access to work and culture, and the air we breathe. Engineers are tasked with
changing how we travel round cities through urban design, but the engineering
industry still works on the assumptions that led to the creation of the energy-
consuming transport systems we have now: the emphasis placed solely on efficiency,
speed, and quantitative data. We need radical changes, to make it healthier, more
enjoyable, and less environmentally damaging to travel around cities. B
Dance might hold some of the answers. That is not to suggest everyone should
dance their way to work, however healthy and happy it might make us, but rather that
the techniques used by choreographers to experiment with and design movement in
dance could provide engineers with tools to stimulate new ideas in city-making.
Richard Sennett, an influential urbanist and sociologist who has transformed ideas
about the way cities are made, argues that urban design has suffered from a
separation between mind and body since the introduction of the architectural blueprint. C
Whereas medieval builders improvised and adapted construction through their
intimate knowledge of materials and personal experience of the conditions on a site,
building designs are now conceived and stored in media technologies that detach the
designer from the physical and social realities they are creating. While the design
practices created by these new technologies are essential for managing the technical
complexity of the modern city, they have the drawback of simplifying reality in the process. D
To illustrate, Sennett discusses the Peachtree Center in Atlanta, USA, a development
typical of the modernist approach to urban planning prevalent in the 1970s.
Peachtree created a grid of streets and towers intended as a new pedestrian-friendly
downtown for Atlanta. According to Sennett, this failed because its designers had
invested too much faith in computer-aided design to tell them how it would operate.
They failed to take into account that purpose-built street cafés could not operate in
the hot sun without the protective awnings common in older buildings, and would
need energy-consuming air conditioning instead, or that its giant car park would feel
so unwelcoming that it would put people off getting out of their cars. What seems
entirely predictable and controllable on screen has unexpected results when translated into reality. E
The same is true in transport engineering, which uses models to predict and shape
the way people move through the city. Again, these models are necessary, but they
are built on specific world views in which certain forms of efficiency and safety are
considered and other experience of the city ignored. Designs that seem logical in
models appear counter-intuitive in the actual experience of their users. The guard
rails that will be familiar to anyone who has attempted to cross a British road, for
example, were an engineering solution to pedestrian safety based on models that
prioritise the smooth flow of traffic. On wide major roads, they often guide pedestrians
to specific crossing points and slow down their progress across the road by using
staggered access points divide the crossing into two – one for each carriageway. In
doing so they make crossings feel longer, introducing psychological barriers greatly
impacting those that are the least mobile, and encouraging others to make
dangerous crossings to get around the guard rails. These barriers don’t just make it
harder to cross the road: they divide communities and decrease opportunities for
healthy transport. As a result, many are now being removed, causing disruption, cost, and waste. F
If their designers had had the tools to think with their bodies – like dancers – and
imagine how these barriers would feel, there might have been a better solution. In
order to bring about fundamental changes to the ways we use our cities, engineering
will need to develop a richer understanding of why people move in certain ways, and
how this movement affects them. Choreography may not seem an obvious choice for
tackling this problem. Yet it shares with engineering the aim of designing patterns of
movement within limitations of space. It is an art form developed almost entirely by
trying out ideas with the body, and gaining instant feedback on how the results feel.
Choreographers have deep understanding of the psychological, aesthetic, and
physical implications of different ways of moving. G
Observing the choreographer Wayne McGregor, cognitive scientist David Kirsh
described how he ‘thinks with the body’, Kirsh argues that by using the body to
simulate outcomes, McGregor is able to imagine solutions that would not be possible
using purely abstract thought. This kind of physical knowledge is valued in many
areas of expertise, but currently has no place in formal engineering design
processes. A suggested method for transport engineers is to improvise design
solutions and instant feedback about how they would work from their own experience
of them, or model designs at full scale in the way choreographers experiment with
groups of dancers. Above all, perhaps, they might learn to design for emotional as well as functional effects.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet. 1
reference to an appealing way of using dance that the writer is not proposing 2
an example of a contrast between past and present approaches to building 3
mention of an objective of both dance and engineering 4
reference to an unforeseen problem arising from ignoring the climate 5
why some measures intended to help people are being reversed 6
reference to how transport has an impact on human lives
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Guard rails
Guard rails were introduced on British roads to improve the 7…………………… of
pedestrians, while ensuring that the movement of 8……………………. is not
disrupted. Pedestrians are led to access points, and encouraged to cross
one 9…………………….. at a time.
An unintended effect is to create psychological difficulties in crossing the road, particularly for less
………………….. people. 10
Another result is that some people
cross the road in a 11……………………. way. The guard rails separate
……………………., and make it more diff 12 icult to introduce forms of transport that are ……………………. 13
Should we try to bring extinct species back to life? A
The passenger pigeon was a legendary species. Flying in vast numbers across North
America, with potentially many millions within a single flock, their migration was once
one of nature’s great spectacles. Sadly, the passenger pigeon’s existence came to an
end on 1 September 1914, when the last living specimen died at Cincinnati Zoo.
Geneticist Ben Novak is lead researcher on an ambitious project which now aims to
bring the bird back to life through a process known as ‘de-extinction’. The basic
premise involves using cloning technology to turn the DNA of extinct animals into a
fertilised embryo, which is carried by the nearest relative still in existence – in this
case, the abundant band-tailed pigeon – before being born as a living, breathing
animal. Passenger pigeons are one of the pioneering species in this field, but they
are far from the only ones on which this cutting-edge technology is being trialled. B
In Australia, the thylacine, more commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, is another
extinct creature which genetic scientists are striving to bring back to life. ‘There is no
carnivore now in Tasmania that fills the niche which thylacines once occupied,’
explains Michael Archer of the University of New South Wales. He points out that in
the decades since the thylacine went extinct, there has been a spread in a
‘dangerously debilitating’ facial tumour syndrome which threatens the existence of
the Tasmanian devils, the island’s other notorious resident. Thylacines would have
prevented this spread because they would have killed significant numbers of
Tasmanian devils. ‘If that contagious cancer had popped up previously, it would have
burned out in whatever region it started. The return of thylacines to Tasmania could
help to ensure that devils are never again subjected to risks of this kind.’ C
If extinct species can be brought back to life, can humanity begin to correct the
damage it has caused to the natural world over the past few millennia? ‘The idea of
de-extinction is that we can reverse this process, bringing species that no longer
exist back to life,’ says Beth Shapiro of University of California Santa Cruz’s
Genomics Institute. ‘I don’t think that we can do this. There is no way to bring back
something that is 100 per cent identical to a species that went extinct a long time
ago.’ A more practical approach for long-extinct species is to take the DNA of existing
species as a template, ready for the insertion of strands of extinct animal DNA to
create something new; a hybrid, based on the living species, but which looks and/or
acts like the animal which died out. D
This complicated process and questionable outcome begs the question: what is the
actual point of this technology? ‘For us, the goal has always been replacing the
extinct species with a suitable replacement,’ explains Novak. ‘When it comes to
breeding, band-tailed pigeons scatter and make maybe one or two nests per hectare,
whereas passenger pigeons were very social and would make 10,000 or more nests
in one hectare.’ Since the disappearance of this key species, ecosystems in the
eastern US have suffered, as the lack of disturbance caused by thousands of
passenger pigeons wrecking trees and branches means there has been minimal
need for regrowth. This has left forests stagnant and therefore unwelcoming to the
plants and animals which evolved to help regenerate the forest after a disturbance.
According to Novak, a hybridized band-tailed pigeon, with the added nesting habits of
a passenger pigeon, could, in theory, re-establish that forest disturbance, thereby
creating a habitat necessary for a great many other native species to thrive. E
Another popular candidate for this technology is the woolly mammoth. George
Church, professor at Harvard Medical School and leader of the Woolly Mammoth
Revival Project, has been focusing on cold resistance, the main way in which the
extinct woolly mammoth and its nearest living relative, the Asian elephant, differ. By
pinpointing which genetic traits made it possible for mammoths to survive the icy
climate of the tundra, the project’s goal is to return mammoths, or a mammoth-like
species, to the area. ‘My highest priority would be preserving the endangered Asian
elephant,’ says Church, ‘expanding their range to the huge ecosystem of the tundra.
Necessary adaptations would include smaller ears, thicker hair, and extra insulating
fat, all for the purpose of reducing heat loss in the tundra, and all traits found in the
now extinct woolly mammoth.’ This repopulation of the tundra and boreal forests of
Eurasia and North America with large mammals could also be a useful factor in
reducing carbon emissions – elephants punch holes through snow and knock down
trees, which encourages grass growth. This grass growth would reduce temperature,
and mitigate emissions from melting permafrost. F
While the prospect of bringing extinct animals back to life might capture imaginations,
it is, of course, far easier to try to save an existing species which is merely
threatened with extinction. ‘Many of the technologies that people have in mind when
they think about de-extinction can be used as a form of “genetic rescue”,’ explains
Shapiro. She prefers to focus the debate on how this emerging technology could be
used to fully understand why various species went extinct in the first place, and
therefore how we could use it to make genetic modifications which could prevent
mass extinctions in the future. ‘I would also say there’s an incredible moral hazard to
not do anything at all,’ she continues. ‘We know that what we are doing today is not
enough, and we have to be willing to take some calculated and measured risks.’
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once. 14
a reference to how further disappearance of multiple species could be avoided. 15
explanation of a way of reproducing an extinct animal using the DNA of only that species 16
reference to a habitat which has suffered following the extinction of a species 17
mention of the exact point at which a particular species became extinct
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
The woolly mammoth revival project
Professor George Church and his team are trying to identify the …………………… 18
which enabled mammoths to live in the tundra. The findings could help preserve the
mammoth’s close relative, the endangered Asian elephant.
According to Church, introducing Asian elephants to the tundra would involve certain
physical adaptations to minimise …………………… T 19 o survive in the tundra, the
species would need to have the mammoth-like features of thicker
hair, 20………………….. of a reduced size and more 21……………………..
Repopulating the tundra with mammoths or Asian elephant/mammoth hybrids would
also have an impact on the environment, which could help to reduce temperatures
and decrease 22…………………… List of People A Ben Novak B Michael Archer C Beth Shapiro 23
Reintroducing an extinct species to its original habitat could improve the health of a
particular species living there. 24
It is important to concentrate on the causes of an animal’s extinction. 25
A species brought back from extinction could have an important beneficial impact on the vegetation of its habitat. 26
Our current efforts at preserving biodiversity are insufficient. Having a laugh
The findings of psychological scientists reveal the importance of humour
Humans start developing a sense of humour as early as six weeks old, when babies
begin to laugh and smile in response to stimuli. Laughter is universal across all
human cultures and even exists in some form in rats, chimps, and bonobos. Like
other human emotions and expressions, laughter and humour provide psychological
scientists with rich resources for studying human psychology, ranging from the
development of language to the neuroscience of social perception.
Theories focusing on the evolution of laughter point to it as an important adaptation
for social communication. Take, for example, the recorded laughter in TV comedy
shows. Back in 1950, US sound engineer Charley Douglass hated dealing with the
unpredictable laughter of live audiences, so started recording his own ‘laugh tracks’.
These were intended to help people at home feel like they were in a social situation,
such as a crowded theatre. Douglass even recorded various types of laughter, as
well as mixtures of laugher from men, women, and children. In doing so, he picked
up on a quality of laughter that is now interesting researchers: a simple ‘haha’
communicates a remarkable amount of socially relevant information.
In one study conducted in 2016, samples of laughter from pairs of English-speaking
students were recorded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A team made up
of more than 30 psychological scientists, anthropologists, and biologists then played
these recording to listeners from 24 diverse societies, from indigenous tribes in New
Guinea to city-dwellers in India and Europe. Participants were asked whether they
thought the people laughing were friends or strangers. On average, the results were
remarkably consistent: worldwide, people’s guesses were correct approximately 60% of the time.
Researchers have also found that different types of laughter serve as codes to
complex human social hierarchies. A team led by Christopher Oveis from the
University of California, San Diego, found that high-status individuals had different
laughs from low-status individuals, and that strangers’ judgements of an individual’s
social status were influenced by the dominant or submissive quality of their laughter.
In their study, 48 male college students were randomly assigned to groups of four,
with each group composed of two low-status members, who had just joined their
college fraternity group, and two high-status members, older student took a turn at
being teased by the others, involving the use of mildly insulting nicknames. Analysis
revealed that, as expected, high-status individuals produced more dominant laughs
and fewer submissive laughs relative to the low-status individuals. Meanwhile, low-
status individuals were more likely to change their laughter based on their position of
power; that is, the newcomers produced more dominant laughs when they were in
the ‘powerful’ role of teasers. Dominant laughter was higher in pitch, louder, and
more variable in tone than submissive laughter.
A random group of volunteers then listened to an equal number of dominant and
submissive laughs from both the high- and low-status individuals, and were asked to
estimate the social status of the laughter. In line with predictions, laughers producing
dominant laughs were perceived to be significantly higher in status than laughers
producing submissive laughs. ‘This was particularly true for low-status individuals,
who were rated as significantly higher in status when displaying a dominant versus
submissive laugh,’ Oveis and colleagues note. ‘Thus, by strategically displaying more
dominant laughter when the context allows, low-status individuals may achieve
higher status in the eyes of others.’ However, high-status individuals were rated as
high-status whether they produced their natural dominant laugh or tried to do a submissive one.
Another study, conducted by David Cheng and Lu Wang of Australian National
University, was based on the hypothesis that humour might provide a respite from
tedious situations in the workplace. This ‘mental break’ might facilitate the
replenishment of mental resources. To test this theory, the researchers recruited 74
business students, ostensibly for an experiment on perception. First, the students
performed a tedious task in which they had to cross out every instance of the letter ‘e’
over two pages of text. The students then were randomly assigned to watch a video
clip eliciting either humour, contentment, or neutral feelings. Some watched a clip of
the BBC comedy Mr. Bean, others a relaxing scene with dolphins swimming in the
ocean, and others a factual video about the management profession.
The students then completed a task requiring persistence in which they were asked
to guess the potential performance of employees based on provided profiles, and
were told that making 10 correct assessments in a row would lead to a win. However,
the software was programmed such that is was nearly impossible to achieve 10
consecutive correct answers. Participants were allowed to quit the task at any point.
Students who had watched the Mr. Bean video ended up spending significantly more
time working on the task, making twice as many predictions as the other two groups.
Cheng and Wang then replicated these results in a second study, during which they
had participants complete long multiplication questions by hand. Again, participants
who watched the humorous video spent significantly more time working on this
tedious task and completed more questions correctly than did the students in either of the other groups.
‘Although humour has been found to help relieve stress and facilitate social
relationships, traditional view of task performance implies that individuals should
avoid things such as humour that may distract them from the accomplishment of task
goals,’ Cheng and Wang conclude. ‘We suggest that humour is not only enjoyable
but more importantly, energising.’ 27
When referring to laughter in the first paragraphs, the writer emphasises A. its impact on language.
B. its function in human culture.
C. its value to scientific research.
D. its universality in animal societies. 28
What does the writer suggest about Charley Douglass?
A. He understood the importance of enjoying humour in a group setting.
B. He believed that TV viewers at home needed to be told when to laugh.
C. He wanted his shows to appeal to audiences across the social spectrum.
D. He preferred shows where audiences were present in the recording studio. 29
What makes the Santa Cruz study particularly significant?
A. the various different types of laughter that were studied
B. the similar results produced by a wide range of cultures
C. the number of different academic disciplines involved
D. the many kinds of people whose laughter was recorded 30
Which of the following happened in the SanDiego study?
A. Some participants became very upset.
B. Participants exchanged roles.
C. Participants who had not met before became friends.
D. Some participants were unable to laugh. 31
In the fifth paragraph, what did the results of the San Diego study suggest?
A. It is clear whether a dominant laugh is produced by a high- or low-status person.
B. Low-status individuals in a position of power will still produce submissive laughs.
C. The submissive laughs of low- and high-status individuals are surprisingly similar.
D. High-status individuals can always be identified by their way of laughing.
Complete the summary using the list of words, , A-H below. The benefits of humour
In one study at Australian National University, randomly chosen groups of participants
were shown one of three videos, each designed to generate a different kind
of 32………………….. . When all participants were then given a deliberately
frustrating task to do, it was found that those who had watched
the 33…………………….. video persisted with the task for longer and tried harder to
accomplish the task than either of the other two groups.
A second study in which participants were asked to perform a particularly
……………………… task produced similar results. 34 According to
researchers David Cheng and Lu Wang, these findings suggest that humour not only
reduces 35…………………… and helps build social connections but it may also have
a 36……………………. Effect on the body and mind.
A laughter B relaxing C boring
D anxiety E stimulating F emotion G enjoyment H amusing 37
Participants in the Santa Cruz study were more accurate at identifying the laughs of
friends than those of strangers. YES NO NOT GIVEN 38
The researchers in the San Diego study were correct in their predictions regarding
the behaviour of the high-status individuals. YES NO NOT GIVEN 39
The participants in the Australian National University study were given a fixed amount
of time to complete the task focusing on employee profiles. YES NO NOT GIVEN 40
Cheng and Wang’s conclusions were in line with established notions regarding task performance. YES NO NOT GIVEN
Cam IELTS 15 reading test 3 Henry Moore (1898-1986)
The British sculptor Henry Moore was a leading figure in the 20th-century art world
Henry Moore was born in Castleford, a small town near Leeds in the north of
England. He was the seventh child of Raymond Moore and his wife Mary Baker. He
studied at Castleford Grammar School from 1909 to 1915, where his early interest in
art was encouraged by his teacher Alice Gostick. After leaving school, Moore hoped
to become a sculptor, but instead he complied with his father’s wish that he train as a
schoolteacher. He had to abandon his training in 1917 when he was sent to France
to fight in the First World War.
After the war, Moore enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, where he studied for two
years. In his first year, he spent most of his time drawing. Although he wanted to
study sculpture, no teacher was appointed until his second year. At the end of that
year, he passed the sculpture examination and was awarded a scholarship to the
Royal College of Art in London. In September 1921, he moved to London and began
three years of advanced study in sculpture.
Alongside the instruction he received at the Royal College, Moore visited many of the
London museums, particularly the British Museum, which had a wide-ranging
collection of ancient sculpture. During these visits, he discovered the power and
beauty of ancient Egyptian and African sculpture. As he became increasingly
interested in these ‘primitive’ forms of art, he turned away from European sculptural traditions.
After graduating, Moore spent the first six months of 1925 travelling in France. When
he visited the Trocadero Museum in Paris, he was impressed by a cast of a Mayan*
sculpture of the rain spirit. It was a male reclining figure with its knees drawn up
together, and its head at a right angle to its body. Moore became fascinated with this
stone sculpture, which he thought had a power and originality that no other stone
sculpture possessed. He himself started carving a variety of subjects in stone,
including depiction of reclining women, mother-and-child groups, and masks.
Moore’s exceptional talent soon gained recognition, and in 1926 he started work as a
sculpture instructor at the Royal College. In 1933, he became a member of a group
of young artists called Unit One. The aim of the group was to convince the English
public of the merits of the emerging international movement in modern art and architecture.
Around this time, Moore moved away from the human figure to experiment with
abstract shapes. In 1931, he held an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in London.
His work was enthusiastically welcomed by fellow sculptors, but the reviews in the
press were extremely negative and turned Moore into a notorious figure. There were
calls for his resignation from the Royal College, and the following year, when his
contract expired, he left to start a sculpture department at the Chelsea School of Art in London.
Throughout the 1930s, Moore did not show any inclination to please the British
public. He became interested in the paintings of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso,
whose work inspired him to distort the human body in a radical way. At times, he
seemed to abandon the human figure altogether. The pages of his sketchbooks from
this period show his ideas for abstract sculptures that bore little resemblance to the human form.
In 1940, during the Second World War, Moore stopped teaching at the Chelsea
School and moved to a farmhouse about 20 miles north of London. A shortage of
materials forced him to focus on drawing. He did numerous small sketches of
Londoners, later turning these ideas into large coloured drawings in his studio. In
1942, he returned to Castleford to make a series of sketches of the miners who worked there.
In 1944, Harlow, a town near London, offered Moore a commission for a sculpture
depicting a family. The resulting work signifies a dramatic change in Moore’s style,
away from the experimentation of the 1930s towards a more natural and humanistic
subject matter. He did dozens of studies in clay for the sculpture, and these were
cast in bronze and issued in editions of seven to nine copies each. In this way,
Moore’s work became available to collectors all over the world. The boost to his
income enabled him to take on ambitious projects and start working on the scale he felt his sculpture demanded.
Critics who had begun to think that Moore had become less revolutionary were
proven wrong by the appearance, in 1950, of the first of Moore’s series of standing
figures in bronze, with their harsh and angular pierced forms and distinct impression
of menace. Moore also varied his subject matter in the 1950s with such works
as Warrior with Shield and Falling Warrior. These were rare examples of Moore’s use
of the male figure and owe something to his visit to Greece in 1951, when he had the
opportunity to study ancient works of art.
In his final years, Moore created the Henry Moore Foundation to promote art
appreciation and to display his work. Moore was the first modern English sculptor to
achieve international critical acclaim and he is still regarded as one of the most
important sculptors of the 20th century. —
*Mayan: belonging to an ancient civilisation that inhabited parts of current-day
Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. 1
On leaving school, Moore did what his father wanted him to do. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
Moore began studying sculpture in his first term at the Leeds School of Art. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
When Moore started at the Royal College of Art, its reputation for teaching sculpture was excellent. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
Moore became aware of ancient sculpture as a result of visiting London Museums. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
The Trocadero Museum’s Mayan sculpture attracted a lot of public interest. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
Moore thought the Mayan sculpture was similar in certain respects to other stone sculptures. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
The artists who belonged to Unit One wanted to make modern art and architecture more popular. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Moore’s career as an artist 1930s
● Moore’s exhibition at the Leicester Galleries is criticised by the press
● Moore is urged to offer his 8………………… and leave the Royal College. 1940s
● Moore turns to drawing because 9…………………. for sculpting are not readily available
● While visiting his hometown, Moore does some drawings of 10………………….
● Moore is employed to produce a sculpture of a 11…………………
● 12………………. start to buy Moore’s work ● Moore’s increased
…………………. makes it possible for him to do more 13 ambitious sculptures 1950s
● Moore’s series of bronze figures marks a further change in his style
The Desolenator: producing clean water A
Travelling around Thailand in the 1990s, William Janssen was impressed with the
basic rooftop solar heating systems that were on many homes, where energy from
the sun was absorbed by a plate and then used to heat water for domestic use. Two
decades later Janssen developed that basic idea he saw in Southeast Asia into a
portable device that uses the power from the sun to purify water. B
The Desolenator operates as a mobile desalination unit that can take water from
different places, such as the sea, rivers, boreholes and rain, and purify it for human
consumption. It is particularly valuable in regions where natural groundwater
reserves have been polluted, or where seawater is the only water source available.
Janssen saw that there was a need for a sustainable way to clean water is both the
developing and the developed countries when he moved to the United Arab Emirates
and saw large-scale water processing. ‘I was confronted with the enormous carbon
footprint that the Gulf nations have because of all of the desalination that they do,’ he says. C
The Desolenator can produce 15 litres of drinking water per day, enough to sustain a
family for cooking and drinking. Its main selling point is that unlike standard
desalination techniques, it doesn’t require a generated power supply: just sunlight. It
measures 120 cm by 90 cm, and it easy to transport, thanks to its two wheels. Water
enters through a pipe, and flows as a thin film between a sheet of double glazing and
the surface of a solar panel, where it is heated by the sun. The warm water flows into
a small boiler (heated by a solar-powered battery) where it is converted to steam.
When the steam cools, it becomes distilled water. The device has a very simple filter
to trap particles, and this can easily be shaken to remove them. There are two tubes
for liquid coming out: one for the waste – salt from seawater, fluoride, etc. – and
another for the distilled water. The performance of the unit is shown on an LCD
screen and transmitted to the company which provides servicing when necessary. D
A recent analysis found that at least two-thirds of the world’s population lives with
severe water scarcity for at least a month every year. Janssen says that be 2030 half
of the world’s population will be living with water stress – where the demand exceeds
the supply over a certain period of time. ‘It is really important that a sustainable
solution is brought to the market that is able to help these people,’ he says. Many
countries ‘don’t have the money for desalination plants, which are very expensive to
build. They don’t have the money to operate them, they are very maintenance
intensive, and they don’t have the money to buy the diesel to run the desalination
plants, so it is a really bad situation.’ E
The device is aimed at a wide variety of users – from homeowners in the developing
world who do not have a constant supply of water to people living off the grid in rural
parts of the US. The first commercial versions of the Desolenator are expected to be
in operation in India early next year, after field tests are carried out. The market for
the self-sufficient devices in developing countries is twofold – those who cannot
afford the money for the device outright and pay through microfinance, and middle-
income homes that can lease their own equipment. ‘People in India don’t pay for a
fridge outright; they pay for it over six months. They would put the Desolenator on
their roof and hook it up to their municipal supply and they would get very reliable
drinking water on a daily basis,’ Janssen says. In the developed world, it is aimed at
niche markets where tap water is unavailable – for camping, on boats, or for the military, for instance. F
Prices will vary according to where it is bought. In the developing world, the price will
depend on what deal aid organisations can negotiate. In developed countries, it is
likely to come in at $1,000 (£685) a unit, said Janssen. ‘We are a venture with a
social mission. We are aware that the product we have envisioned is mainly finding
application in the developing world and humanitarian sector and that this is the way
we will proceed. We do realise, though, that to be a viable company there is a bottom
line to keep in mind,’ he says. G
The company itself is based at Imperial College London, although Janssen, its chief
executive, still lives in the UAE. It has raised £340,000 in funding so far. Within two
years, he says, the company aims to be selling 1,000 units a month, mainly in the
humanitarian field. They are expected to be sold in areas such as Australia, northern
Chile, Peru, Texas and California. List of Headings
i Getting the finance for production
ii An unexpected benefit
iii From initial inspiration to new product
iv The range of potential customers for the device
v What makes the device different from alternatives
vi Cleaning water from a range of sources
vii Overcoming production difficulties
viii Profit not the primary goal
ix A warm welcome for the device
x The number of people affected by water shortages 14 Section A 15 Section B 16 Section C 17 Section D 18 Section E 19 Section F 20 Section G Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
How the Desolenator works
The energy required to operate the Desolenator comes from sunlight. The device can
be used in different locations, as it has ………………… . W 21 ater is fed into a pipe,
and a 22………………….. of water flows over a solar panel. The water then enters a
boiler, where it turns into steam. Any particles in the water are caught in
a 23………………… . The purified water comes out through one tube, and all types
of 24………………… come out through another. A screen displays
the 25………………… of the device, and transmits the information to the company so
that they know when the Desolenator requires 26…………………. .
Why fairy tales are really scary tales
Some people think that fairy tales are just stories to amuse children, but their
universal and enduring appeal may be due to more serious reasons
People of every culture tell each other fairy tales but the same story often takes a
variety of forms in different parts of the world. In the story of Little Red Riding
Hood that European children are familiar with, a young girl on the way to see her
grandmother meets a wolf and tells him where she is going. The wolf runs on ahead
and disposes of the grandmother, then gets into bed dressed in the grandmother’s
clothes to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. You may think you know the story – but
which version? In some versions, the wolf swallows up the grandmother, while in
others it locks her in a cupboard. In some stories Red Riding Hood gets the better of
the wolf on her own, while in others a hunter or a woodcutter hears her cries and comes to her rescue.
The universal appeal of these tales is frequently attributed to the idea that they
contain cautionary messages: in the case of Little Red Riding Hood, to listen to your
mother, and avoid talking to strangers. ‘It might be what we find interesting about this
story is that it’s got this survival-relevant information in it,’ says anthropologist Jamie
Tehrani at Durham University in the UK. But his research suggests otherwise. ‘We
have this huge gap in our knowledge about the history and prehistory of storytelling,
despite the fact that we know this genre is an incredibly ancient one,’ he says. That
hasn’t stopped anthropologists, folklorists* and other academics devising theories to
explain the importance of fairy tales in human society. Now Tehrani has found a way
to test these ideas, borrowing a technique from evolutionary biologists.
To work out the evolutionary history, development and relationships among groups of
organisms, biologists compare the characteristics of living species in a process called
‘phylogenetic analysis’. Tehrani has used the same approach to compare related
versions of fairy tales to discover how they have evolved and which elements have survived longest.
Tehrani’s analysis focused on Little Red Riding Hood in its many forms, which include
another Western fairy tale known as The Wolf and the Kids. Checking for variants of
these two tales and similar stories from Africa, East Asia and other regions, he ended
up with 58 stories recorded from oral traditions. Once his phylogenetic analysis had
established that they were indeed related, he used the same methods to explore how
they have developed and altered over time.
First he tested some assumptions about which aspects of the story alter least as it
evolves, indicating their importance. Folklorists believe that what happens in a story
is more central to the story than the characters in it – that visiting a relative, only to
be met by a scary animal in disguise, is more fundamental than whether the visitor is
a little girl or three siblings, or the animal is a tiger instead of a wolf.
However, Tehrani found no significant difference in the rate of evolution of incidents
compared with that of characters. ‘Certain episodes are very stable because they are
crucial to the story, but there are lots of other details that can evolve quite freely,’ he
says. Neither did his analysis support the theory that the central section of a story is
the most conserved part. He found no significant difference in the flexibility of events
there compared with the beginning or the end.
But the really big surprise came when he looked at the cautionary elements of the
story. ‘Studies on hunter-gatherer folk tales suggest that these narratives include
really important information about the environment and the possible dangers that
may be faced there – stuff that’s relevant to survival,’ he says. Yet in his analysis
such elements were just as flexible as seemingly trivial details. What, then, is
important enough to be reproduced from generation to generation?
The answer, it would appear, is fear – blood-thirsty and gruesome aspects of the
story, such as the eating of the grandmother by the wolf, turned out to be the best
preserved of all. Why are these details retained by generations of storytellers, when
other features are not? Tehrani has an idea: ‘In an oral context, a story won’t survive
because of one great teller. It also needs to be interesting when it’s told by someone
who’s not necessarily a great storyteller.’ Maybe being swallowed whole by a wolf,
then cut out of its stomach alive is so gripping that it helps the story remain popular,
no matter how badly it’s told.
Jack Zipes at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, is unconvinced by Tehrani’s
views on fairy tales. ‘Even if they’re gruesome, they won’t stick unless they matter,’
he says. He believes the perennial theme of women as victims in stories like Little
Red Riding Hood explains why they continue to feel relevant. But Tehrani points out
that although this is often the case in Western versions, it is not always true
elsewhere. In Chinese and Japanese versions, often known as The Tiger
Grandmother, the villain is a woman, and in both Iran and Nigeria, the victim is a boy.
Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark isn’t surprised by Tehrani’s findings.
‘Habits and morals change, but the things that scare us, and the fact that we seek out
entertainment that’s designed to scare us – those are constant,’ he says. Clasen
believes that scary stories teach us what it feels like to be afraid without having to
experience real danger, and so build up resistance to negative emotions. —-
*Folklorists: those who study traditional stories
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, , A-F below.
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
A may be provided through methods used in biological research.
B are the reason for their survival.
C show considerable global variation.
D contain animals which transform to become humans.
E were originally spoken rather than written.
F have been developed without factual basis. 27
In fairy tales, details of the plot 28
Tehrani rejects the idea that the useful lessons for life in fairy tales 29
Various theories about the social significance of fairy tales 30
Insights into the development of fairy tales 31.
All the fairy tales analysed by Tehrani
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes on your answer sheet. 32-36
Phylogenetic analysis of Little Red Riding Hood
Tehrani used techniques from evolutionary biology to find out if 32…………………..
existed among 58 stories from around the world. He also wanted to know which
aspects of the stories had fewest
…………………., as he believed these aspects 33
would be the most important ones. Contrary to other beliefs, he found that
some 34……………………. that were included in a story tended to change over time,
and that the middle of a story seemed no more important than the other parts. He
was also surprised that parts of a story which seemed to provide some sort
of 35…………………. were unimportant. The aspect that he found most important in a story’s survival was ………………… 36
A ending B events C warning
D links E records F variations
G horror H people I plot 37
What method did Jamie Tehrani use to test his ideas about fairy tales?
A. He compared oral and written forms of the same stories.
B. He looked at many different forms of the same basic story.
C. He looked at unrelated stories from many different countries.
D. He contrasted the development of fairy tales with that of living creatures. 38
When discussing Tehrani’s views, Jack Zipes suggests that
A. Tehrani ignores key changes in the role of women.
B. stories which are too horrific are not always taken seriously.
C. Tehrani overemphasises the importance of violence in stories.
D. features of stories only survive if they have a deeper significance. 39
Why does Tehrani refer to Chinese and Japanese fairy tales?
A. to indicate that Jack Zipes’ theory is incorrect
B. to suggest that crime is a global problem
C. to imply that all fairy tales have a similar meaning
D. to add more evidence for Jack Zipes’ ideas 40
What does Mathias Clasen believe about fairy tales?
A. They are a safe way of learning to deal with fear.
B. They are a type of entertainment that some people avoid.
C. They reflect the changing values of our society.
D. They reduce our ability to deal with real-world problems.
Cam IELTS 15 reading test 4
The return of the huarango
The arid valleys of southern Peru are welcoming the return of a native plant
The south coast of Peru is a narrow, 2,000-kilometre-long strip of desert squeezed
between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. It is also one of the most fragile
ecosystems on Earth. It hardly ever rains there, and the only year-round source of
water is located tens of metres below the surface. This is why the huarango tree is so
suited to life there: it has the longest roots of any tree in the world. They stretch down
50-80 metres and, as well as sucking up water for the tree, they bring it into the
higher subsoil, creating a water source for other plant life.
Dr David Beresford-Jones, archaeobotanist at Cambridge University, has been
studying the role of the huarango tree in landscape change in the Lower Ica Valley in
southern Peru. He believes the huarango was key to the ancient people’s diet and,
because it could reach deep water sources, it allowed local people to withstand years
of drought when their other crops failed. But over the centuries huarango trees were
gradually replaced with crops. Cutting down native woodland leads to erosion, as
there is nothing to keep the soil in place. So when the huarangos go, the land turns
into a desert. Nothing grows at all in the Lower Ica Valley now.
For centuries the huarango tree was vital to the people of the neighbouring Middle
Ica Valley too. They grew vegetables under it and ate products made from its seed
pods. Its leaves and bark were used for herbal remedies, while its branches were
used for charcoal for cooking and heating, and its trunk was used to build houses.
But now it is disappearing rapidly. The majority of the huarango forests in the valley
have already been cleared for fuel and agriculture – initially, these were
smallholdings, but now they’re huge farms producing crops for the international market.
‘Of the forests that were here 1,000 years ago, 99 per cent have already gone,’ says
botanist Oliver Whaley from Kew Gardens in London, who, together with
ethnobotanist Dr William Milliken, is running a pioneering project to protect and
restore the rapidly disappearing habitat. In order to succeed, Whaley needs to get the
local people on board, and that has meant overcoming local prejudices. ‘Increasingly
aspirational communities think that if you plant food trees in your home or street, it
shows you are poor, and still need to grow your own food,’ he says. In order to stop
the Middle Ica Valley going the same way as the Lower Ica Valley, Whaley is
encouraging locals to love the huarangos again. ‘It’s a process of cultural
resuscitation,’ he says. He has already set up a huarango festival to reinstate a
sense of pride in their eco-heritage, and has helped local schoolchildren plant thousands of trees.
‘In order to get people interested in habitat restoration, you need to plant a tree that is
useful to them,’ says Whaley. So, he has been working with local families to attempt
to create a sustainable income from the huarangos by turning their products into
foodstuffs. ‘Boil up the beans and you get this thick brown syrup like molasses. You
can also use it in drinks, soups or stews.’ The pods can be ground into flour to make
cakes, and the seeds roasted into a sweet, chocolatey ‘coffee’. ‘It’s packed full of
vitamins and minerals,’ Whaley says.
And some farmers are already planting huarangos. Alberto Benevides, owner of Ica
Valley’s only certified organic farm, which Whaley helped set up, has been planting
the tree for 13 years. He produces syrup and flour, and sells these products at an
organic farmers’ market in Lima. His farm is relatively small and doesn’t yet provide
him with enough to live on, but he hopes this will change. ‘The organic market is
growing rapidly in Peru,’ Benevides says. ‘I am investing in the future.’
But even if Whaley can convince the local people to fall in love with the huarango
again, there is still the threat of the larger farms. Some of these cut across the forests
and break up the corridors that allow the essential movement of mammals, birds and
pollen up and down the narrow forest strip. In the hope of counteracting this, he’s
persuading farmers to let him plant forest corridors on their land. He believes the
extra woodland will also benefit the farms by reducing their water usage through a
lowering of evaporation and providing a refuge for bio-control insects.
‘If we can record biodiversity and see how it all works, then we’re in a good position
to move on from there. Desert habitats can reduce down to very little,’ Whaley
explains. ‘It’s not like a rainforest that needs to have this huge expanse. Life has
always been confined to corridors and islands here. If you just have a few trees left,
the population can grow up quickly because it’s used to exploiting water when it
arrives.’ He sees his project as a model that has the potential to be rolled out across
other arid areas around the world. ‘If we can do it here, in the most fragile system on
Earth, then that’s a real message of hope for lots of places, including Africa, where
there is drought and they just can’t afford to wait for rain.’
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The importance of the huarango tree
– its roots can extend as far as 80 metres into the soil
– can access 1………………… deep below the surface
– was a crucial part of local inhabitants’ 2………………… a long time ago
– helped people to survive periods of 3…………………..
– prevents 4………………… of the soil
– prevents land from becoming a 5…………………
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Traditional uses of the huarango tree Part of tree Traditional use 6……………….. Fuel 7………………. and Medicine ………………. 8……………… construction 9
Local families have told Whaley about some traditional uses of huarango products. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
Farmer Alberto Benevides is now making a good profit from growing huarangos. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
Whaley needs the co-operation of farmers to help preserve the area’s wildlife. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
For Whaley’s project to succeed, it needs to be extended over a very large area. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
Whaley has plans to go to Africa to set up a similar project. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Silbo Gomero – the whistle ‘language’ of the Canary Islands
La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the
northwest coast of Africa. This small volcanic island is mountainous, with steep rocky
slopes and deep, wooded ravines, rising to 1,487 metres at its highest peak. It is also
home to the best known of the world’s whistle ‘languages’, a means of transmitting
information over long distances which is perfectly adapted to the extreme terrain of the island.
This ‘language’, known as ‘Silbo’ or ‘Silbo Gomero’ – from the Spanish word for
‘whistle’ – is now shedding light on the language-processing abilities of the human
brain, according to scientists. Researchers say that Silbo activates parts of the brain
normally associated with spoken language, suggesting that the brain is remarkably
flexible in its ability to interpret sounds as language.
‘Science has developed the idea of brain areas that are dedicated to language, and
we are starting to understand the scope of signals that can be recognised as
language,’ says David Corina, co-author of a recent study and associate professor of
psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Silbo is a substitute for Spanish, with individual words recoded into whistles which
have high- and low-frequency tones. A whistler – or silbador – puts a finger in his or
her mouth to increase the whistle’s pitch, while the other hand can be cupped to
adjust the direction of the sound. ‘There is much more ambiguity in the whistled
signal than in the spoken signal,’ explains lead researcher Manuel Carreiras,
psychology professor at the University of La Laguna on the Canary island of Tenerife.
Because whistled ‘words’ can be hard to distinguish, silbadores rely on repetition, as
well as awareness of context, to make themselves understood.
The silbadores of Gomera are traditionally shepherds and other isolated mountain
folk, and their novel means of staying in touch allows them to communicate over
distances of up to 10 kilometres. Carreiras explains that silbadores are able to pass a
surprising amount of information via their whistles. ‘In daily life they use whistles to
communicate short commands, but any Spanish sentence could be whistled.’ Silbo
has proved particularly useful when fires have occurred on the island and rapid
communication across large areas has been vital.
The study team used neuroimaging equipment to contrast the brain activity of
silbadores while listening to whistled and spoken Spanish. Results showed the left
temporal lobe of the brain, which is usually associated with spoken language, was
engaged during the processing of Silbo. The researchers found that other key
regions in the brain’s frontal lobe also responded to the whistles, including those
activated in response to sign language among deaf people. When the experiments
were repeated with non-whistlers, however, activation was observed in all areas of the brain.
‘Our results provide more evidence about the flexibility of human capacity for
language in a variety of forms,’ Corina says. ‘These data suggest that left-
hemisphere language regions are uniquely adapted for communicative purposes,
independent of the modality of signal. The non-Silbo speakers were not recognising
Silbo as a language. They had nothing to grab onto, so multiple areas of their brains were activated.’
Carreiras says the origins of Silbo Gomero remain obscure, but that indigenous
Canary Islanders, who were of North African origin, already had a whistled language
when Spain conquered the volcanic islands in the 15th century. Whistled languages
survive today in Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Vietnam, Guyana, China, Nepal,
Senegal, and a few mountainous pockets in southern Europe. There are thought to
be as many as 70 whistled languages still in use, though only 12 have been
described and studied scientifically. This form of communication is an adaptation
found among cultures where people are often isolated from each other, according to
Julien Meyer, a researcher at the Institute of Human Sciences in Lyon, France. ‘They
are mostly used in mountains or dense forests,’ he says. ‘Whistled languages are
quite clearly defined and represent an original adaptation of the spoken language for
the needs of isolated human groups.’
But with modern communication technology now widely available, researchers say
whistled languages like Silbo are threatened with extinction. With dwindling numbers
of Gomera islanders still fluent in the language, Canaries’ authorities are taking steps
to try to ensure its survival. Since 1999, Silbo Gomero has been taught in all of the
island’s elementary schools. In addition, locals are seeking assistance from the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ‘The
local authorities are trying to get an award from the organisation to declare [Silbo
Gomero] as something that should be preserved for humanity,’ Carreiras adds. 14
La Gomera is the most mountainous of all the Canary Islands. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 15
Silbo is only appropriate for short and simple messages. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 16
In the brain-activity study, silbadores and non-whistlers produced different results. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 17
The Spanish introduced Silbo to the islands in the 15th century. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 18
There is precise data available regarding all of the whistle languages in existence today. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 19
The children of Gomera now learn Silbo. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Silbo Gomero How Silbo is produced
● high- and low-frequency tones represent different sounds in Spanish …………… 20
● pitch of whistle is controlled using silbador’s …………… 21
● 22………….. is changed with a cupped hand How Silbo is used
● has long been used by shepherds and people living in secluded locations
● in everyday use for the transmission of brief …………… 23
● can relay essential information quickly, e.g. to inform people about …………… 24 The future of Silbo
● future under threat because of new …………… 25
● Canaries’ authorities hoping to receive a UNESCO 26……………. to help preserve it
Environmental practices of big businesses
The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that
for many of us offend our sense of justice. Depending on the circumstances, a
business may maximize the amount of money it makes, at least in the short term, by
damaging the environment and hurting people. That is still the case today for
fishermen in an unmanaged fishery without quotas, and for international logging
companies with short-term leases on tropical rainforest land in places with corrupt
officials and unsophisticated landowners. When government regulation is effective,
and when the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses
may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government
regulation is ineffective and if the public doesn’t care.
It is easy for the rest of us to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other
people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that
businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and that publicly owned
companies with shareholders are under obligation to those shareholders to maximize
profits, provided that they do so by legal means. US laws make a company’s
directors legally liable for something termed ‘breach of fiduciary responsibility’ if they
knowingly manage a company in a way that reduces profits. The car manufacturer
Henry Ford was in fact successfully sued by shareholders in 1919 for raising the
minimum wage of his workers to $5 per day: the courts declared that, while Ford’s
humanitarian sentiments about his employees were nice, his business existed to
make profits for its stockholders.
Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for
creating the condition that let a business profit through destructive environmental
policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that
has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make
sustainable environmental policies profitable.
The public can do that by suing businesses for harming them, as happened after the
Exxon Valdez disaster, in which over 40,000m3 of oil were spilled off the coast of
Alaska. The public may also make their opinion felt by preferring to buy sustainably
harvested products; by making employees of companies with poor track records feel
ashamed of their company and complain to their own management; by preferring
their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good
environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce
laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.
In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might
ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became
concerned about the spread of a disease known as BSE, which was transmitted to
humans through infected meat, the US government’s Food and Drug Administration
introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated
with the risk of the disease spreading. But for five years the meat packers refused to
follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a
major fast-food company then made the same demands after customer purchases of
its hamburgers plummeted, the meat industry complied within weeks. The public’s
task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public
pressure: for instance, fast-food chains or jewelry stores, but not meat packers or gold miners.
Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate
responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also
believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to
cover the added costs, if any, of sound environmental practices. My views may seem
to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles
even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that,
throughout human history, in all politically complex human societies, government
regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral
principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.
To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior
of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than
disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong,
admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. In the past, businesses have changed
when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses
for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses
practicing behaviors that the public didn’t want. I predict that in the future, just as in
the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses’ environmental practices.. Big businesses
Many big businesses today are prepared to harm people and the environment in
order to make money, and they appear to have no 27………………. . Lack
of 28……………….. by governments and lack of public 29………………. can lead to
environmental problems such as
……………….. or the destruction 30
of 31……………….
A funding B trees C rare species
D moral standards E control involvement F
G flooding H overfishing I worker support 32
The main idea of the third paragraph is that environmental damage
A. requires political action if it is to be stopped.
B. is the result of ignorance on the part of the public.
C. could be prevented by the action of ordinary people.
D. can only be stopped by educating business leaders. 33
In the fourth paragraph, the writer describes ways in which the public can
A. reduce their own individual impact on the environment.
B. learn more about the impact of business of the environment.
C. raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters.
D. influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments. 34
What pressure was exerted by big business in the case of the disease BSE?
A. Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains.
B. A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law.
C. Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses.
D. A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce legislation. 35
The public should be prepared to fund good environmental practices. YES NO NOT GIVEN 36
There is a contrast between the moral principles of different businesses. YES NO NOT GIVEN 37
It is important to make a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. YES NO NOT GIVEN 38
The public have successfully influenced businesses in the past. YES NO NOT GIVEN 39
In the future, businesses will show more concern for the environment. YES NO NOT GIVEN 40
What would be the best subheading for this passage?
A. Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses?
B. How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit?
C. What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses?
D. Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause the environment?
Cam IELTS 16 reading test 1
Why we need to protect polar bears
Polar bears are being increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change, but
their disappearance could have far-reaching consequences. They are uniquely
adapted to the extreme conditions of the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can reach
—40°C. One reason for this is that they have up to 11 centimetres of fat underneath
their skin. Humans with comparative levels of adipose tissue would be considered
obese and would be likely to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. Yet the polar
bear experiences no such consequences.
A 2014 study by Shi Ping Liu and colleagues sheds light on this mystery. They
compared the genetic structure of polar bears with that of their closest relatives from
a warmer climate, the brown bears. This allowed them to determine the genes that
have allowed polar bears to survive in one of the toughest environments on Earth.
Liu and his colleagues found the polar bears had a gene known as APoB, which
reduces levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) — a form of ‘bad’ cholesterol. In
humans, mutations of this gene are associated with increased risk of heart disease.
Polar bears may therefore be an important study model to understand heart disease in humans.
The genome of the polar bear may also provide the solution for another condition,
one that particularly affects our older generation: osteoporosis. This is a disease
where bones show reduced density, usually caused by insufficient exercise, reduced
calcium intake or food starvation. Bone tissue is constantly being remodelled,
meaning that bone is added or removed, depending on nutrient availability and the
stress that the bone is under. Female polar bears, however, undergo extreme
conditions during every pregnancy. Once autumn comes around, these females will
dig maternity dens in the snow and will remain there throughout the winter, both
before and after the birth of their cubs. This process results in about six months of
fasting, where the female bears have to keep themselves and their cubs alive,
depleting their own calcium and calorie reserves. Despite this, their bones remain strong and dense.
Physiologists Alanda Lennox and Allen Goodship found an explanation for this
paradox in 2008. They discovered that pregnant bears were able to increase the
density of their bones before they started to build their dens. In addition, six months
later, when they finally emerged from the den with their cubs, there was no evidence
of significant loss of bone density. Hibernating brown bears do not have this capacity
and must therefore resort to major bone reformation in the following spring. If the
mechanism of bone remodelling in polar bears can be understood, many bedridden
humans, and even astronauts, could potentially benefit.
The medical benefits of the polar bear for humanity certainly have their importance in
our conservation efforts, but these should not be the only factors taken into
consideration. We tend to want to protect animals we think are intelligent and
possess emotions, such as elephants and primates. Bears, on the other hand, seem
to be perceived as stupid and in many cases violent. And yet anecdotal evidence
from the field challenges those assumptions, suggesting for example that polar bears
have good problem-solving abilities. A male bear called GoGo in Tennoji Zoo, Osaka,
has even been observed making use of a tool to manipulate his environment. The
bear used a tree branch on multiple occasions to dislodge a piece of meat hung out
of his reach. Problem-solving ability has also been witnessed in wild polar bears,
although not as obviously as with GoGo. A calculated move by a male bear involved
running and jumping onto barrels in an attempt to get to a photographer standing on a platform four metres high.
In other studies, such as one by Alison Annes in 2008, polar bears showed deliberate
and focussed manipulation. For example, Annes observed bears putting objects in
piles and then knocking them over in what appeared to be a game. The study
demonstrates that bears are capable of agile and thought-out behaviours. These
examples suggest bears have greater creativity and problem-solving abilities than previously thought.
As for emotions while the evidence is once again anecdotal, many bears have been
seen to hit out at ice and snow — seemingly out of frustration — when they have just
missed out on a kill. Moreover, polar bears can form unusual relationships with other
species, including playing with the dogs used to pull sleds in the Arctic. Remarkably,
one hand-raised polar bear called Agee has formed a close relationship with her
owner Mark Dumas to the point where they even swim together. This is even more
astonishing since polar bears are known to actively hunt humans in the wild.
If climate change were to lead to their extinction, this would mean not only the loss of
potential breakthroughs in human medicine, but more importantly, the disappearance
of an intelligent, majestic animal. 1
Polar bears suffer from various health problems due to the build-up of fat under their skin. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
The study done by Liu and his colleagues compared different groups of polar bears. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
Liu and colleagues were the first researchers to compare polar bears and brown bears genetically. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
Polar bears are able to control their levels of bad cholesterol by genetic means. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
Female polar bears are able to survive for about six months without food. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
It was found that the bones of female polar bears were very weak when they came out of their dens in spring. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
The polar bear’s mechanism for increasing bone density could also be used by people one day. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Complete the table below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Reasons why polar bears should be protected
People think of bears as unintelligent
and (8) ………………………….
However, this may not be true. For example:
� In Tennoji Zoo, a bear has been seen using a branch
as a (9) …………………………. This allowed him to
knock down some (10) ………………………….
� A wild polar bear worked out a method of reaching a
platform where a (11) …………………………. was located.
� Polar bears have displayed behaviour such as
conscious manipulation of objects and activity similar
to a (12) ………………………….
Bears may also display emotions. For example: � They may make movements
suggesting (13) …………………………. if disappointed when hunting.
� They may form relationships with other species
The Step Pyramid of Djoser A.
The pyramids are the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt and still hold
enormous interest for people in the present day. These grand, impressive tributes to
the memory of the Egyptian kings have become linked with the country even though
other cultures, such as the Chinese and Mayan, also built pyramids. The evolution of
the pyramid form has been written and argued about for centuries. However, there is
no question that, as far as Egypt is concerned, it began with one monument to one
king designed by one brilliant architect: the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. B.
Djoser was the first king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt and the first to build in stone.
Prior to Djoser’s reign, tombs were rectangular monuments made of dried clay brick,
which covered underground passages where the deceased person was buried. For
reasons which remain unclear, Djoser’s main official, whose name was Imhotep,
conceived of building a taller, more impressive tomb for his king by stacking stone
slabs on top of one another, progressively making them smaller, to form the shape
now known as the Step Pyramid. Djoser is thought to have reigned for 19 years, but
some historians and scholars attribute a much longer time for his rule, owing to the
number and size of the monuments he built. C.
The Step Pyramid has been thoroughly examined and investigated over the last
century, and it is now known that the building process went through many different
stages. Historian Marc Van de Mieroop comments on this, writing ‘Much
experimentation was involved, which is especially clear in the construction of the
pyramid in the center of the complex. It had several plans … before it became the
first Step Pyramid in history, piling six levels on top of one another … The weight of
the enormous mass was a challenge for the builders, who placed the stones at an
inward incline in order to prevent the monument breaking up.’ D.
When finally completed, the Step Pyramid rose 62 meters high and was the tallest
structure of its time. The complex in which it was built was the size of a city in ancient
Egypt and included a temple, courtyards, shrines, and living quarters for the priests.
It covered a region of 16 hectares and was surrounded by a wall 10.5 meters high.
The wall had 13 false doors cut into it with only one true entrance cut into the south-
east corner; the entire wall was then ringed by a trench 750 meters long and 40
meters wide. The false doors and the trench were incorporated into the complex to
discourage unwanted visitors. If someone wished to enter, he or she would have
needed to know in advance how to find the location of the true opening in the wall.
Djoser was so proud of his accomplishment that he broke the tradition of having only
his own name on the monument and had Imhotep’s name carved on it as well. E.
The burial chamber of the tomb, where the king’s body was laid to rest, was dug
beneath the base of the pyramid, surrounded by a vast maze of long tunnels that had
rooms off them to discourage robbers. One of the most mysterious discoveries found
inside the pyramid was a large number of stone vessels. Over 40,000 of these
vessels, of various forms and shapes, were discovered in storerooms of the
pyramid’s underground passages. They are inscribed with the names of rulers from
the First and Second Dynasties of Egypt and made from different kinds of stone.
There is no agreement among scholars and archaeologists on why the vessels were
placed in the tomb of Djoser or what they were supposed to represent. The
archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer, who excavated most of the pyramid and complex,
believes they were originally stored and then given a ‘proper burial’ by Djoser in his
pyramid to honor his predecessors. There are other historians, however, who claim
the vessels were dumped into the shafts as yet another attempt to prevent grave
robbers from getting to the king’s burial chamber. F.
Unfortunately, all of the precautions and intricate design of the underground network
did not prevent ancient robbers from finding a way in. Djoser’s grave goods, and
even his body, were stolen at some point in the past and all archaeologists found
were a small number of his valuables overlooked by the thieves. There was enough
left throughout the pyramid and its complex, however, to astonish and amaze the
archaeologists who excavated it. G.
Egyptologist Miroslav Verner writes, ‘Few monuments hold a place in human history
as significant as that of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara … It can be said without
exaggeration that this pyramid complex constitutes a milestone in the evolution of
monumental stone architecture in Egypt and in the world as a whole.’ The Step
Pyramid was a revolutionary advance in architecture and became the archetype
which all the other great pyramid builders of Egypt would follow. List of Headings
i. The areas and artefacts within the pyramid itself
ii. A difficult task for those involved
iii. A king who saved his people
iv. A single certainty among other less definite facts
v. An overview of the external buildings and areas
vi. A pyramid design that others copied
vii. An idea for changing the design of burial structures
viii. An incredible experience despite the few remains
ix. The answers to some unexpected questions 14 Paragraph A 15 Paragraph B 16 Paragraph C 17 Paragraph D 18 Paragraph E 19 Paragraph F 20 Paragraph G Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet. 21-24 The Step Pyramid of Djoser
The complex that includes the Step Pyramid and its
surroundings is considered to be as big as an
Egyptian (21) …………………………. of the past.
The area outside the pyramid included accommodation
that was occupied by (22) ………………………….
along with many other buildings and features.
A wall ran around the outside of the complex and a
number of false entrances were built into this. In
addition, a long (23) ………………………….
encircled the wall. As a result, any visitors who had not
been invited were cleverly prevented from entering the
pyramid grounds unless they knew
the (24) …………………………. of the real entrance.
Which TWO of the following points does the writer make about King Djoser?
A. Initially he had to be persuaded to build in stone rather than clay.
B. There is disagreement concerning the length of his reign.
C. He failed to appreciate Imhotep’s part in the design of Step Pyramid.
D. A few of his possessions were still in his tomb when archaeologists found it.
E. He criticised the design and construction of other pyramids in Egypt. 25 26 The future of work
According to a leading business consultancy, 3—14% of the global workforce will
need to switch to a different occupation within the next 10—15 years, and all workers
will need to adapt as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable
machines. Automation — or ‘embodied artificial intelligence (AI) — is one aspect of
the disruptive effects of technology on the labour market. ‘Disembodied AI’, like the
algorithms running in our smartphones, is another.
Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the
most fundamental changes are happening as a result of the ‘algorithmication’ of
jobs that are dependent on data rather than on production — the so-called
knowledge economy. Algorithms are capable of learning from data to undertake tasks
that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing
medical scans and gathering market intelligence.
‘In many cases, they can outperform humans,’ says Pachidi. ‘Organisations are
attracted to using algorithms because they want to make choices based on what they
consider is “perfect information”, as well as to reduce costs and enhance productivity.’
‘But these enhancements are not without consequences,’ says Pachidi. ‘If routine
cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future
experts?’ she asks. ‘One way of learning about a job is “legitimate peripheral
participation”— a novice stands next to experts and learns by observation. If this isn’t
happening, then you need to find new ways to learn.’
Another issue is the extent to which the technology influences or even controls the
workforce. For over two years, Pachidi monitored a telecommunications company.
‘The way telecoms salespeople work is through personal and frequent contact with
clients, using the benefit of experience to assess a situation and reach a decision.
However, the company had started using a[n] … algorithm that defined when account
managers should contact certain customers about which kinds of campaigns and what to offer them.’
The algorithm — usually built by external designers — often becomes the keeper of
knowledge, she explains. In cases like this, Pachidi believes, a short-sighted view
begins to creep into working practices whereby workers learn through the ‘algorithm’s
eyes’ and become dependent on its instructions. Alternative explorations — where
experimentation and human instinct lead to progress and new ideas — are effectively discouraged.
Pachidi and colleagues even observed people developing strategies to make the
algorithm work to their own advantage. ‘We are seeing cases where workers feed the
algorithm with false data to reach their targets,’ she reports.
It’s scenarios like these that many researchers are working to avoid. Their objective
is to make AI technologies more trustworthy and transparent, so that organisations
and individuals understand how AI decisions are made. In the meantime, says
Pachidi, ‘We need to make sure we fully understand the dilemmas that this new world
raises regarding expertise, occupational boundaries and control.’
Economist Professor Hamish Low believes that the future of work will involve major
transitions across the whole life course for everyone: ‘The traditional trajectory of full-
time education followed by full-time work followed by a pensioned retirement is a
thing of the past,’ says Low. Instead, he envisages a multistage employment life: one
where retraining happens across the life course, and where multiple jobs and no job
happen by choice at different stages.
On the subject of job losses, Low believes the predictions are founded on a fallacy: ‘It
assumes that the number of jobs is fixed. If in 30 years, half of 100 jobs are being
carried out by robots, that doesn’t mean we are left with just 50 jobs for humans. The
number of jobs will increase: we would expect there to be 150 jobs.’
Dr Ewan McGaughey, at Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research and King’s
College London, agrees that ‘apocalyptic’ views about the future of work are
misguided. ‘It’s the laws that restrict the supply of capital to the job market, not the
advent of new technologies that causes unemployment.’
His recently published research answers the question of whether automation, AI and
robotics will mean a ‘jobless future’ by looking at the causes of unemployment.
‘History is clear that change can mean redundancies. But social policies can tackle
this through retraining and redeployment.’
He adds: ‘If there is going to be change to jobs as a result of AI and robotics then I’d
like to see governments seizing the opportunity to improve policy to enforce good job
security. We can “reprogramme” the law to prepare for a fairer future of work and
leisure.’ McGaughey’s findings are a call to arms to leaders of organisations,
governments and banks to pre-empt the coming changes with bold new policies that
guarantee full employment, fair incomes and a thriving economic democracy.
‘The promises of these new technologies are astounding. They deliver humankind
the capacity to live in a way that nobody could have once imagined,’ he adds. 'Just as
the industrial revolution brought people past subsistence agriculture, and the
corporate revolution enabled mass production, a third revolution has been
pronounced. But it will not only be one of technology. The next revolution will be social.' 27
The first paragraph tells us about…
A. the kind of jobs that will be most affected by the growth of AI.
B. the extent to which AI will alter the nature of the work that people do.
C. the proportion of the world’s labour force who will have jobs in AI in the future.
D. the difference between ways that embodied and disembodied AI will impact on workers. 28
According to the second paragraph, what is Stella Pachidi’s view of the ’knowledge economy’?
A. It is having an influence on the number of jobs available.
B. It is changing people’s attitudes towards their occupations.
C. It is the main reason why the production sector is declining.
D. It is a key factor driving current developments in the workplace. 29
What did Pachidi observe at the telecommunications company?
A. staff disagreeing with the recommendations of AI
B. staff feeling resentful about the intrusion of Al in their work
C. staff making sure that AI produces the results that they want
D. staff allowing AI to carry out tasks they ought to do themselves 30
In his recently published research, Ewan McGaughey…
A. challenges the idea that redundancy is a negative thing.
B. shows the profound effect of mass unemployment on society.
C. highlights some differences between past and future job losses.
D. illustrates how changes in the job market can be successfully handled. A. pressure B. satisfaction C. intuition D. promotion E. reliance F. confidence G. information
The ‘algorithimication’ of jobs
Stella Pachidi of Cambridge Judge Business School has been focusing on the of jobs which algorithmication rely not on production but
on (31) …………………………. .
While monitoring a telecommunications company, Pachidi observed a
growing (32) …………………………. on the
recommendations made by AI, as workers begin to
learn through the algorithm’s eyes. Meanwhile, staff
are deterred from experiencing and using their own
(33) …………………………. , and are therefore
prevented from achieving innovation.
To avoid the kind of situations which Pachidi observed,
researchers are trying to make AI’s decision-making
process easier to comprehend, and to increase
user’s (34) …………………………. with regard to the technology. List of people A. Stella Pachidi B. Hamish Low C. Ewan McGaughey 35
Greater levels of automation will not result in lower employment. 36
There are several reasons why AI is appealing to businesses. 37
AI’s potential to transform people’s lives has parallels with major cultural shifts which occurred in previous eras. 38
It is important to be aware of the range of problems that AI causes. 39
People are going to follow a less conventional career path than in the past. 40
Authorities should take measures to ensure that there will be adequately paid work for everyone.
Cam IELTS 16 reading test 2
The White Horse of Uffington
The cutting of huge figures or geoglyphs into the earth of English hillsides has taken
place for more than 3,000 years. There are 56 hill figures scattered around England,
with the vast majority on the chalk downlands of the country’s southern counties. The
figures include giants, horses, crosses and regimental badges. Although the majority
of these geoglyphs date within the last 300 years or so, there are one or two that are much older.
The most famous of these figures is perhaps also the most mysterious — the
Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. The White Horse has recently been re-dated
and shown to be even older than its previously assigned ancient pre-Roman Iron
Age date. More controversial is the date of the enigmatic Long Man of Wilmington in
Sussex. While many historians are convinced the figure is prehistoric, others believe
that it was the work of an artistic monk from a nearby priory and was created
between the 11th and 15th centuries.
The method of cutting these huge figures was simply to remove the overlying grass
to reveal the gleaming white chalk below. However, the grass would soon grow over
the geoglyph again unless it was regularly cleaned or scoured by a fairly large team
of people. One reason that the vast majority of hill figures have disappeared is that
when the traditions associated with the figures faded, people no longer bothered or
remembered to clear away the grass to expose the chalk outline. Furthermore, over
hundreds of years the outlines would sometimes change due to people not always
cutting in exactly the same place, thus creating a different shape to the original
geoglyph. The fact that any ancient hill figures survive at all in England today is
testament to the strength and continuity of local customs and beliefs which, in one
case at least, must stretch back over millennia.
The Uffington White Horse is a unique, stylised representation of a horse consisting
of a long, sleek back, thin disjointed legs, a streaming tail, and a bird-like beaked
head. The elegant creature almost melts into the landscape. The horse is situated 2.5
km from Uffington village on a steep slope close to the Late Bronze Age (c. 7th
century BCE) hillfort of Uffington Castle and below the Ridgeway, a long-distance Neolithic track.
The Uffington Horse is also surrounded by Bronze Age burial mounds. It is not far
from the Bronze Age cemetery of Lambourn Seven Barrows, which consists of more
than 30 well-preserved burial mounds. The carving has been placed in such a way as
to make it extremely difficult to see from close quarters, and like many geoglyphs is
best appreciated from the air. Nevertheless, there are certain areas of the Vale of the
White Horse, the valley containing and named after the enigmatic creature, from
which an adequate impression may be gained. Indeed on a clear day the carving can be seen from up to 30 km away.
The earliest evidence of a horse at Uffington is from the 1070s CE when ‘White
Horse Hill’ is mentioned in documents from the nearby Abbey of Abingdon, and the
first reference to the horse itself is soon after, in 1190 CE. However, the carving is
believed to date back much further than that. Due to the similarity of the Uffington
White Horse to the stylised depictions of horses on 1st century BCE coins, it had
been thought that the creature must also date to that period.
However, in 1995 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) testing was carried out
by the Oxford Archaeological Unit on soil from two of the lower layers of the horse’s
body, and from another cut near the base. The result was a date for the horse’s
construction somewhere between 1400 and 600 BCE — in other words, it had a Late
Bronze Age or Early Iron Age origin.
The latter end of this date range would tie the carving of the horse in with occupation
of the nearby Uffington hillfort, indicating that it may represent a tribal emblem
marking the land of the inhabitants of the hillfort. Alternatively, the carving may have
been carried out during a Bronze or Iron Age ritual. Some researchers see the horse
as representing the Celtic horse goddess Epona, who was worshipped as a protector
of horses, and for her associations with fertility. However, the cult of Epona was not
imported from Gaul (France) until around the first century CE. This date is at least six
centuries after the Uffington Horse was probably carved. Nevertheless, the horse had
great ritual and economic significance during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as attested
by its depictions on jewellery and other metal objects. It is possible that the carving
represents a goddess in native mythology, such as Rhiannon, described in later
Welsh mythology as a beautiful woman dressed in gold and riding a white horse.
The fact that geoglyphs can disappear easily, along with their associated rituals and
meaning, indicates that they were never intended to be anything more than
temporary gestures. But this does not lessen their importance. These giant carvings
are a fascinating glimpse into the minds of their creators and how they viewed the landscape in which they lived. 1
Most geoglyphs in England are located in a particular area of the country. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
There are more geoglyphs in the shape of a horse than any other creature. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
A recent dating of the Uffington White Horse indicates that people were mistaken about its age. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
Historians have come to an agreement about the origins of the Long Man of Wilmington. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
Geoglyphs were created by people placing white chalk on the hillside. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
Many geoglyphs in England are no longer visible. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
The shape of some geoglyphs has been altered over time. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
The fame of the Uffington White Horse is due to its size. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. The Uffington White Horse
The location of the Uffington White Horse:
� a distance of 2.5 km from Uffington village
� near an ancient road known as
the (9) ………………………….
� close to an ancient cemetery that has a number of burial mounds
Dating the Uffington White Horse: The Uffington White Horse
� first reference to White Horse Hill appears
in (10) …………………………. from the 1070s
� horses shown on coins from the period 100 BCE – 1 BCE are similar in appearance
� according to analysis of the
surrounding (11) …………………………. , the Horse
is Late Bronze age/Early Iron age
Possible reasons for creation of the Uffington White Horse:
� an emblem to indicate land ownership
� formed part of an ancient ritual
� was a representation of goddess Epona – associated with protection of horses
and (12) …………………………
� was a representation of a Welsh goddess
called (13) …………………………. I contain multitudes
Wendy Moore reviews Ed Yong’s book about microbes
Microbes, most of them bacteria, have populated this planet since long before
animal life developed and they will outlive us. Invisible to the naked eye, they are
ubiquitous. They inhabit the soil, air, rocks and water and are present within every
form of life, from seaweed and coral to dogs and humans. And, as Yong explains in
his utterly absorbing and hugely important book, we mess with them at our peril.
Every species has its own colony of microbes, called a ‘microbiome’, and these
microbes vary not only between species but also between individuals and within
different parts of each individual. What is amazing is that while the number of human
cells in the average person is about 30 trillion, the number of microbial ones is higher
— about 39 trillion. At best, Yong informs us, we are only 50 per cent human. Indeed,
some scientists even suggest we should think of each species and its microbes as a
single unit, dubbed a ‘holobiont’.
In each human there are microbes that live only in the stomach, the mouth or the
armpit and by and large they do so peacefully. So ‘bad’ microbes are just microbes
out of context. Microbes that sit contentedly in the human gut (where there are more
microbes than there are stars in the galaxy) can become deadly if they find their way
into the bloodstream. These communities are constantly changing too. The right hand
shares just one sixth of its microbes with the left hand. And, of course, we are
surrounded by microbes. Every time we eat, we swallow a million microbes in each
gram of food; we are continually swapping microbes with other humans, pets and the world at large.
It’s a fascinating topic and Yong, a young British science journalist, is an
extraordinarily adept guide. Writing with lightness and panache, he has a knack of
explaining complex science in terms that are both easy to understand and totally
enthralling. Yong is on a mission. Leading us gently by the hand, he takes us into the
world of microbes — a bizarre, alien planet — in a bid to persuade us to love them as
much as he does. By the end, we do.
For most of human history we had no idea that microbes existed. The first man to see
these extraordinarily potent creatures was a Dutch lens-maker called Antony van
Leeuwenhoek in the 1670s. Using microscopes of his own design that could magnify
up to 270 times, he examined a drop of water from a nearby lake and found it
teeming with tiny creatures he called ‘animalcules’. It wasn’t until nearly two hundred
years later that the research of French biologist Louis Pasteur indicated that some
microbes caused disease. It was Pasteur’s ‘germ theory’ that gave bacteria the poor image that endures today.
Yong’s book is in many ways a plea for microbial tolerance, pointing out that while
fewer than one hundred species of bacteria bring disease, many thousands more
play a vital role in maintaining our health. The book also acknowledges that our
attitude towards bacteria is not a simple one. We tend to see the dangers posed by
bacteria, yet at the same time we are sold yoghurts and drinks that supposedly
nurture ‘friendly’ bacteria. In reality, says Yong, bacteria should not be viewed as
either friends or foes, villains or heroes. Instead we should realise we have a
symbiotic relationship, that can be mutually beneficial or mutually destructive.
What then do these millions of organisms do? The answer is pretty much everything.
New research is now unravelling the ways in which bacteria aid digestion, regulate
our immune systems, eliminate toxins, produce vitamins, affect our behaviour and
even combat obesity. ‘They actually help us become who we are,’ says Yong. But we
are facing a growing problem. Our obsession with hygiene, our overuse of antibiotics
and our unhealthy, low-fibre diets are disrupting the bacterial balance and may be
responsible for soaring rates of allergies and immune problems, such as
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
The most recent research actually turns accepted norms upside down. For example,
there are studies indicating that the excessive use of household detergents and
antibacterial products actually destroys the microbes that normally keep the more
dangerous germs at bay. Other studies show that keeping a dog as a pet gives
children early exposure to a diverse range of bacteria, which may help protect them against allergies later.
The readers of Yong’s book must be prepared for a decidedly unglamorous world.
Among the less appealing case studies is one about a fungus that is wiping out entire
populations of frogs and that can be halted by a rare microbial bacterium. Another is
about squid that carry luminescent bacteria that protect them against predators.
However, if you can overcome your distaste for some of the investigations, the
reasons for Yong’s enthusiasm become clear. The microbial world is a place of
wonder. Already, in an attempt to stop mosquitoes spreading dengue fever — a
disease that infects 400 million people a year — mosquitoes are being loaded with a
bacterium to block the disease. In the future, our ability to manipulate microbes
means we could construct buildings with useful microbes built into their walls to fight
off infections. Just imagine a neonatal hospital ward coated in a specially mixed
cocktail of microbes so that babies get the best start in life.
Choose the correct letter- A,B,C or D.
Write your answer in boxes 14-16 on your reading answer sheet. 14
What point does the writer make about microbes in the first paragraph?
A. They adapt quickly to their environment.
B. The risk they pose has been exaggerated.
C. They are more plentiful in animal life than plant life.
D. They will continue to exist for longer than the human race. 15
In the second paragraph, the writer is impressed by the fact that…
A. each species tends to have vastly different microbes.
B. some parts of the body contain relatively few microbes.
C. the average individual has more microbial cells than human ones.
D. scientists have limited understanding of how microbial cells behave. 16
What is the writer doing in the fifth paragraph?
A. explaining how a discovery was made
B. comparing scientists’ theories about microbes
C. describing confusion among scientists
D. giving details of how microbes cause disease A. solution B. partnership C. destruction D. exaggeration E. cleanliness F. regulations G. illness H. nutrition
We should be more tolerant of microbes
Yong’s book argues that we should be more tolerant of
microbes. Many have a beneficial effect, and only a relatively small number lead
to (17) …………………………. . And although it is
misleading to think of microbes as friendly, we should
also stop thinking of them as the enemy. In fact, we
should accept that our relationship with microbes is
one based on (18) ………………………….
New research shows that microbes have numerous
benefits for humans. Amongst other things, they aid
digestion, remove poisons, produce vitamins and may
even help reduce obesity. However, there is a growing
problem. Our poor (19) …………………………. , our
overuse of antibiotics, and our excessive focus
on (20) …………………………. are upsetting the
bacterial balance and may be contributing to the huge
increase in allergies and immune system problems. 21
It is possible that using antibacterial products in the home fails to have the desired effect. YES NO NOT GIVEN 22
It is a good idea to ensure that children come into contact with as few bacteria as possible. YES NO NOT GIVEN 23
Yong’s book contains more case studies than are necessary. YES NO NOT GIVEN 24
The case study about bacteria that prevent squid from being attacked may have limited appeal. YES NO NOT GIVEN 25
Efforts to control dengue fever have been surprisingly successful. YES NO NOT GIVEN 26
Microbes that reduce the risk of infection have already been put inside the walls of some hospital wards. YES NO NOT GIVEN
How to make wise decisions
Across cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human
qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical research
examining wisdom suggests that it isn’t an exceptional trait possessed by a small
handful of bearded philosophers after all — in fact, the latest studies suggest that
most of us have the ability to make wise decisions, given the right context.
‘It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful
in shaping wisdom than previously imagined,’ says Associate Professor Igor
Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. ‘Recent empirical
findings from cognitive, developmental, social, and personality psychology
cumulatively suggest that people’s ability to reason wisely varies dramatically across
experiential and situational contexts. Understanding the role of such contextual
factors offers unique insights into understanding wisdom in daily life, as well as how it can be enhanced and taught.’
It seems that it’s not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and others
lack it, but that our ability to reason wisely depends on a variety of external factors. ‘It
is impossible to characterize thought processes attributed to wisdom without
considering the role of contextual factors,’ explains Grossmann. ‘In other words,
wisdom is not solely an “inner quality” but rather unfolds as a function of situations
people happen to be in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than others.’
Coming up with a definition of wisdom is challenging, but Grossmann and his
colleagues have identified four key characteristics as part of a framework of wise
reasoning. One is intellectual humility or recognition of the limits of our own
knowledge, and another is appreciation of perspectives wider than the issue at hand.
Sensitivity to the possibility of change in social relations is also key, along with
compromise or integration of different attitudes and beliefs.
Grossmann and his colleagues have also found that one of the most reliable ways to
support wisdom in our own day-to-day decisions is to look at scenarios from a third-
party perspective, as though giving advice to a friend. Research suggests that when
adopting a first-person viewpoint we focus on ‘the focal features of the environment’
and when we adopt a third-person, ‘observer’ viewpoint we reason more broadly and
focus more on interpersonal and moral ideals such as justice and impartiality.
Looking at problems from this more expansive viewpoint appears to foster cognitive
processes related to wise decisions.
What are we to do, then, when confronted with situations like a disagreement with a
spouse or negotiating a contract at work, that require us to take a personal stake?
Grossmann argues that even when we aren’t able to change the situation, we can
still evaluate these experiences from different perspectives.
For example, in one experiment that took place during the peak of a recent economic
recession, graduating college seniors were asked to reflect on their job prospects.
The students were instructed to imagine their career either ‘as if you were a distant
observer’ or ‘before your own eyes as if you were right there’. Participants in the
group assigned to the ‘distant observer’ role displayed more wisdom-related
reasoning (intellectual humility and recognition of change) than did participants in the control group.
In another study, couples in long-term romantic relationships were instructed to
visualize an unresolved relationship conflict either through the eyes of an outsider or
from their own perspective. Participants then discussed the incident with their partner
for 10 minutes, after which they wrote down their thoughts about it. Couples in the
‘other’s eyes’ condition were significantly more likely to rely on wise reasoning —
recognizing others’ perspectives and searching for a compromise — compared to the
couples in the egocentric condition.
‘Ego-decentering promotes greater focus on others and enables a bigger picture,
conceptual view of the experience, affording recognition of intellectual humility and change,’ says Grossmann.
We might associate wisdom with intelligence or particular personality traits, but
research shows only a small positive relationship between wise thinking and
crystallized intelligence and the personality traits of openness and agreeableness. ‘It
is remarkable how much people can vary in their wisdom from one situation to the
next, and how much stronger such contextual effects are for understanding the
relationship between wise judgment and its social and affective outcomes as
compared to the generalized “traits”,’ Grossmann explains. ‘That is, knowing how
wisely a person behaves in a given situation is more informative for understanding
their emotions or likelihood to forgive [or] retaliate as compared to knowing whether
the person may be wise “in general”. 27
What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?
A. Wisdom appears to be unique to the human race.
B. A basic assumption about wisdom may be wrong.
C. Concepts of wisdom may depend on the society we belong to.
D. There is still much to be discovered about the nature of wisdom. 28
What does Igor Grossmann suggest about the ability to make wise decisions?
A. It can vary greatly from one person to another.
B. Earlier research into it was based on unreliable data.
C. The importance of certain influences on it was underestimated.
D. Various branches of psychology define it according to their own criteria. 29
According to the third paragraph, Grossmann claims that the level of wisdom an individual shows…
A. can be greater than they think it is.
B. will be different in different circumstances.
C. may be determined by particular aspects of their personality.
D. should develop over time as a result of their life experiences. 30
What is described in the fifth paragraph?
A. a difficulty encountered when attempting to reason wisely
B. an example of the type of person who is likely to reason wisely
C. a controversial view about the benefits of reasoning wisely
D. a recommended strategy that can help people to reason wisely Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet. 31-35 A. opinions B. confidence C. view D. modesty E. problems F. objectivity G. fairness H. experiences I. range J. reasons
The characteristics of wise reasoning
Igor Grossman and colleagues have established four
characteristics which enable us to make wise decisions.
It is important to have a certain degree
of (31) …………………………. regarding the extent
of our knowledge, and to take into
account (32) …………………………. which may not
be the same as our own. We should also be able to take
a broad (33) …………………………. of any situation.
Another key characteristic is being aware of the
likelihood of alterations in the way that people relate to each other.
Grossmann also believes that it is better to regard
scenarios with (34) …………………………. . By
avoiding the first-person perspective, we focus more
on (35) …………………………. and on other moral
ideals, which in turn leads to wiser decision-making. 36
Students participating in the job prospects experiment could choose one of two perspectives to take. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 37
Participants in the couples experiment were aware that they were taking part in a study about wise reasoning. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 38
In the couples experiment, the length of the couples’ relationship had an impact on the results. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 39
In both experiments, the participants who looked at the situation from a more
detached viewpoint tended to make wiser decisions. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 40
Grossmann believes that a person’s wisdom is determined by their intelligence to only a very limited extent. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Cam IELTS 16 reading test 3
Roman shipbuilding and navigation
Shipbuilding today is based on science and ships are built using computers and
sophisticated tools. Shipbuilding in ancient Rome, however, was more of an art
relying on estimation, inherited techniques and personal experience. The Romans
were not traditionally sailors but mostly land- based people, who learned to build
ships from the people that they conquered, namely the Greeks and the Egyptians.
There are a few surviving written documents that give descriptions and
representations of ancient Roman ships, including the sails and rigging. Excavated
vessels also provide some clues about ancient shipbuilding techniques. Studies of
these have taught us that ancient Roman shipbuilders built the outer hull first, then
proceeded with the frame and the rest of the ship. Planks used to build the outer hull
were initially sewn together. Starting from the 6th century BCE, they were fixed using
a method called mortise and tenon, whereby one plank locked into another without
the need for stitching. Then in the first centuries of the current era, Mediterranean
shipbuilders shifted to another shipbuilding method, still in use today, which consisted
of building the frame first and then proceeding with the hull and the other
components of the ship. This method was more systematic and dramatically
shortened ship construction times. The ancient Romans built large merchant ships
and warships whose size and technology were unequalled until the 16th century CE.
Warships were built to be lightweight and very speedy. They had to be able to sail
near the coast, which is why they had no ballast or excess load and were built with a
long, narrow hull. They did not sink when damaged and often would lie crippled on
the sea’s surface following naval battles. They had a bronze battering ram, which
was used to pierce the timber hulls or break the oars of enemy vessels. Warships
used both wind (sails) and human power (oarsmen) and were therefore very fast.
Eventually, Rome’s navy became the largest and most powerful in the
Mediterranean, and the Romans had control over what they therefore called Mare Nostrum meaning ‘our sea’.
There were many kinds of warship. The ‘trireme was the dominant warship from the
7th to 4th century BCE. It had rowers in the top, middle and lower levels, and
approximately 50 rowers in each bank. The rowers at the bottom had the most
uncomfortable position as they were under the other rowers and were exposed to the
water entering through the oar-holes. It is worth noting that contrary to popular
perception, rowers were not slaves but mostly Roman citizens enrolled in the military.
The trireme was superseded by larger ships with even more rowers.
Merchant ships were built to transport lots of cargo over long distances and at a
reasonable cost. They had a wider hull, double planting and a solid interior for added
stability. Unlike warships, their V-shaped hull was deep underwater, meaning that
they could not sail too close to the coast. They usually had two huge side rudders
located off the stern and controlled by a small tiller bar connected to a system of
cables. They had from one to three masts with large square sails and a small
triangular sail at the bow. Just like warships, merchant ships used oarsmen, but
coordinating the hundreds of rowers in both types of ship was not an easy task. In
order to assist them, music would be played on an instrument, and oars would then keep time with this.
The cargo on merchant ships included raw materials (e.g. iron bars, copper, marble
and granite), and agricultural products (e.g. grain from Egypt’s Nile valley). During the
Empire, Rome was a huge city by ancient standards of about one million inhabitants.
Goods from all over the world would come to the city through the port of Pozzuoli
situated west of the bay of Naples in Italy and through the gigantic port of Ostia
situated at the mouth of the Tiber River. Large merchant ships would approach the
destination port and, just like today, be intercepted by a number of towboats that would drag them to the quay.
The time of travel along the many sailing routes could vary widely. Navigation in
ancient Rome did not rely on sophisticated instruments such as compasses but on
experience, local knowledge and observation of natural phenomena. In conditions of
good visibility, seamen in the Mediterranean often had the mainland or islands in
sight, which greatly facilitated navigation. They sailed by noting their position relative
to a succession of recognisable landmarks. When weather conditions were not good
or where land was no longer visible, Roman mariners estimated directions from the
pole star or, with less accuracy, from the Sun at noon. They also estimated directions
relative to the wind and swell. Overall, shipping in ancient Roman times resembled
shipping today with large vessels regularly crossing the seas and bringing supplies from their Empire. 1
The Romans’ shipbuilding skills were passed on to the Greeks and the Egyptians. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
Skilled craftsmen were needed for the mortise and tenon method of fixing planks. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
The later practice used by Mediterranean shipbuilders involved building the hull before the frame. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea Mare Nostrum because they dominated its use. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
Most rowers on ships were people from the Roman army. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Warships and Merchant ships Warships are designed so they
were (6) …………………………. and moved quickly.
They often remained afloat after battles and were able
to sail close to land as they lacked any additional weight. A battering ram made
of (7) …………………………. was included in the
design for attacking and damaging the timber and oars
of enemy ships. Warships, such as the ‘trireme’, had
rowers on three different (8) …………………………. .
Unlike warships, merchant ships had a
broad (9) …………………………. that lay far below
the surface of the sea. Merchant ships were steered
through the water with the help of large rudders and a
tiller bar. They had both square
and (10) …………………………. sails. On merchant
ships and warships, (11) …………………………. was
used to ensure rowers moved their oars in and out of the water at the same time.
Quantities of agricultural goods such
as (12) ………………………… were transported by
merchant ships to two main ports in Italy. The ships were pulled to the shore
by (13) …………………………. . When the weather
was clear and they could see islands or land, sailors
used landmarks that they knew to help them navigate their route.
Climate change reveals ancient artefacts in Norway’s glaciers A.
Well above the treeline in Norway’s highest mountains, ancient fields of ice are
shrinking as Earth’s climate warms. As the ice has vanished, it has been giving up
the treasures it has preserved in cold storage for the last 6,000 years — items such
as ancient arrows and skis from Viking Age* traders. And those artefacts have
provided archaeologists with some surprising insights into how ancient Norwegians made their livings. B.
Organic materials like textiles and hides are relatively rare finds at archaeological
sites. This is because unless they’re protected from the microorganisms that cause
decay, they tend not to last long. Extreme cold is one reliable way to keep artefacts
relatively fresh for a few thousand years, but once thawed out, these materials
experience degradation relatively swiftly.
With climate change shrinking ice cover around the world, glacial archaeologists
need to race the clock to find newly revealed artefacts, preserve them, and study
them. If something fragile dries and is windblown it might very soon be lost to
science, or an arrow might be exposed and then covered again by the next snow and
remain well-preserved. The unpredictability means that glacial archaeologists have to
be systematic in their approach to fieldwork. C.
Over a nine-year period, a team of archaeologists, which included Lars Pilo of
Oppland County Council, Norway, and James Barrett of the McDonald Institute for
Archaeological Research, surveyed patches of ice in Oppland, an area of south-
central Norway that is home to some of the country’s highest mountains. Reindeer
once congregated on these icy patches in the later summer months to escape biting
insects, and from the late Stone Age**, hunters followed. In addition, trade routes
threaded through the mountain passes of Oppland, linking settlements in Norway to the rest of Europe.
The slow but steady movement of glaciers tends to destroy anything at their bases,
so the team focused on stationary patches of ice, mostly above 1,400 metres. That
ice is found amid fields of frost-weathered boulders, fallen rocks, and exposed
bedrock that for nine months of the year is buried beneath snow.
‘Fieldwork is hard work — hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost
— but very rewarding. You’re rescuing the archaeology, bringing the melting ice to
wider attention, discovering a unique environmental history and really connecting
with the natural environment,’ says Barrett. D.
At the edges of the contracting ice patches, archaeologists found more than 2,000
artefacts, which formed a material record that ran from 4,000 BCE to the beginnings
of the Renaissance in the 14th century. Many of the artefacts are associated with
hunting. Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often discarded
broken bows rather than take them all the way home. Other items could have been
used by hunters traversing the high mountain passes of Oppland: all-purpose items
like tools, skis, and horse tack. E.
Barrett’s team radiocarbon-dated 153 of the artefacts and compared those dates to
the timing of major environmental changes in the region — such as periods of cooling
or warming — and major social and economic shifts — such as the growth of farming
settlements and the spread of international trade networks leading up to the Viking
Age. They found that some periods had produced lots of artefacts, which indicates
that people had been pretty active in the mountains during those times. But there
were few or no signs of activity during other periods. F.
What was surprising, according to Barrett, was the timing of these periods. Oppland’s
mountains present daunting terrain and in periods of extreme cold, glaciers could
block the higher mountain passes and make travel in the upper reaches of the
mountains extremely difficult. Archaeologists assumed people would stick to lower
elevations during a time like the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a short period of deeper-
than-usual cold from about 536-600 CE. But it turned out that hunters kept regularly
venturing into the mountains even when the climate turned cold, based on the
amount of stuff they had apparently dropped there.
‘Remarkably, though, the finds from the ice may have continued through this period,
perhaps suggesting that the importance of mountain hunting increased to
supplement failing agricultural harvests in times of low temperatures,’ says Barrett. A
colder turn in the Scandinavian climate would likely have meant widespread crop
failures, so more people would have depended on hunting to make up for those losses. G.
Many of the artefacts Barrett’s team recovered date from the beginning of the Viking
Age, the 700s through to the 900s CE. Trade networks connecting Scandinavia with
Europe and the Middle East were expanding around this time. Although we usually
think of ships when we think of Scandinavian expansion, these recent discoveries
show that plenty of goods travelled on overland routes, like the mountain passes of
Oppland. And growing Norwegian towns, along with export markets, would have
created a booming demand for hides to fight off the cold, as well as antlers to make
useful things like combs. Business must have been good for hunters. H.
Norway’s mountains are probably still hiding a lot of history — and prehistory — in
remote ice patches. When Barrett’s team looked at the dates for their sample of 153
artefacts, they noticed a gap with almost no artefacts from about 3,800 to 2,200 BCE.
In fact, archaeological finds from that period are rare all over Norway. The
researchers say that could be because many of those artefacts have already
disintegrated or are still frozen in the ice. That means archaeologists could be
extracting some of those artefacts from retreating ice in years to come. 14
an explanation for weapons being left behind in the mountains 15
a reference to the physical difficulties involved in an archaeological expedition 16
an explanation of why less food may have been available 17
a reference to the possibility of future archaeological discoveries 18
examples of items that would have been traded 19
a reference to the pressure archaeologists are under to work quickly
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Interesting finds at an archaeological site
Organic materials such as animal skins and textiles are
not discovered very often at archaeological sites. They
Interesting finds at an archaeological site have little protection
against (20) …………………………. , which means
that they decay relatively quickly. But this is not
always the case. If temperatures are low enough,
fragile artefacts can be preserved for thousands of years.
A team of archaeologists have been working in the
mountains in Oppland in Norway to recover artefacts
revealed by shrinking ice cover. In the past, there were
trade routes through these mountains
and (21) …………………………. gathered there in the
summer months to avoid being attacked
by (22) ………………………… on lower ground. The
people who used these mountains left things behind
and it is those objects that are of interest to archaeologists.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the
discoveries of Barrett’s team?
A. Artefacts found in the higher mountain passes were limited to skiing equipment.
B. Hunters went into the mountains even during periods of extreme cold.
C. The number of artefacts from certain time periods was relatively low.
D. Radiocarbon dating of artefacts produced some unreliable results.
E. More artefacts were found in Oppland than at any other mountain site. 23 24
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the Viking Age?
A. Hunters at this time benefited from an increased demand for goods.
B. The beginning of the period saw the greatest growth in the wealth of Vikings.
C. Vikings did not rely on ships alone to transport goods.
D. Norwegian towns at this time attracted traders from around the world.
E. Vikings were primarily interested in their trading links with the Middle East. 25 26
Plant ‘thermometer’ triggers springtime growth by measuring night-time heat
A photoreceptor molecule in plant cells has been found to have a second job
as a thermometer after dark – allowing plants read seasonal temperature to
changes. Scientists say the discovery could help breed crops that are more
resilient to the temperatures expected to result from climate change. A.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge has discovered
that the ‘thermometer’ molecule in plants enables them to develop according to
seasonal temperature changes. Researchers have revealed that molecules
called phytochromes — used by plants to detect light during the day actually
change their function in darkness to become cellular temperature gauges that measure the heat of the night.
The new findings, published in the journal Science, show that phytochromes control
genetic switches in response to temperature as well as light to dictate plant development. B.
At night, these molecules change states, and the pace at which they change is
‘directly proportional to temperature’, say scientists, who compare phytochromes to
mercury in a thermometer. The warmer it is, the faster the molecular change — stimulating plant growth. C.
Farmers and gardeners have known for hundreds of years how responsive plants are
to temperature: warm winters cause many trees and flowers to bud early, something
humans have long used to predict weather and harvest times for the coming year.
The latest research pinpoints for the first time a molecular mechanism in plants that
reacts to temperature — often triggering the buds of spring we long to see at the end of winter. D.
With weather and temperatures set to become ever more unpredictable due to
climate change, researchers say the discovery that this light-sensing molecule also
functions as the internal thermometer in plant cells could help us breed tougher
crops. ‘It is estimated that agricultural yields will need to double by 2050, but climate
change is a major threat to achieving this. Key crops such as wheat and rice are
sensitive to high temperatures. Thermal stress reduces crop yields by around 10%
for every one degree increase in temperature,’ says lead researcher Dr Philip Wigge
from Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory. ‘Discovering the molecules that allow plants
to sense temperature has the potential to accelerate the breeding of crops resilient to
thermal stress and climate change.’ E.
In their active state, phytochrome molecules bind themselves to DNA to restrict plant
growth. During the day, sunlight activates the molecules, slowing down growth. If a
plant finds itself in shade, phytochromes are quickly inactivated — enabling it to grow
faster to find sunlight again. This is how plants compete to escape each other’s
shade. ‘Light-driven changes to phytochrome activity occur very fast, in less than a second,’ says Wigge.
At night, however, it’s a different story. Instead of a rapid deactivation following
sundown, the molecules gradually change from their active to inactive state. This is
called ‘dark reversion’. ‘Just as mercury rises in a thermometer, the rate at which
phytochromes revert to their inactive state during the night is a direct measure of temperature,’ says Wigge. F.
‘The lower the temperature, the slower the rate at which phytochromes revert to
inactivity, so the molecules spend more time in their active, growth-suppressing state.
This is why plants are slower to grow in winter. Warm temperatures accelerate dark
reversion, so that phytochromes rapidly reach an inactive state and detach
themselves from the plant’s DNA — allowing genes to be expressed and plant growth
to resume.’ Wigge believes phytochrome thermo-sensing evolved at a later stage,
and co-opted the biological network already used for light-based growth during the downtime of night. G.
Some plants mainly use day length as an indicator of the season. Other species,
such as daffodils, have considerable temperature sensitivity, and can flower months
in advance during a warm winter. In fact, ie discovery of the dual role of
phytochromes provides the science behind a well-known rhyme long used to predict
the coming season: oak before ash we’ll have a splash, ash before oak we’re in for a soak.
Wigge explains: ‘Oak trees rely much more on temperature, likely using
phytochromes as thermometers to dictate development, whereas ash trees rely on
measuring day length to determine their seasonal timing. A warmer spring, and
consequently a higher likeliness of a hot summer, will result in oak leafing before ash.
A cold spring will see the opposite. As the British know only too well, a colder
summer is likely to be a rain-soaked one.’ H.
The new findings are the culmination of twelve years of research involving scientists
from Germany, Argentina and the US, as well as the Cambridge team. The work was
done in a model system, using a mustard plant called Arabidopsis, but Wigge says
the phytochrome genes necessary for temperature sensing are found in crop plants
as well. ‘Recent advances in plant genetics now mean that scientists are able to
rapidly identify the genes controlling these processes in crop plants, and even alter
their activity using precise molecular “scalpels”,’ adds Wigge. ‘Cambridge is uniquely
well-positioned to do this kind of research as we have outstanding collaborators
nearby who work on more applied aspects of plant biology, and can help us transfer
this new knowledge into the field.’
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? 27
The Cambridge scientists’ discovery of the ‘thermometer molecule’ caused surprise among other scientists. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 28
The target for agricultural production by 2050 could be missed. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 29
Wheat and rice suffer from a rise in temperatures. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 30
It may be possible to develop crops that require less water. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 31
Plants grow faster in sunlight than in shade. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 32
Phytochromes change their state at the same speed day and night. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose the correct letter, A-H. 33
mentions of specialists who can make use of the research findings 34
a reference to a potential benefit of the research findings 35
scientific support for a traditional saying 36
a reference to people traditionally making plans based on plant behaviour 37
a reference to where the research has been reported
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. 38
Daffodils are likely to flower early in response to …………………………….. weather. 39
If ash trees come into leaf before oak trees, the weather in …………………………….. will probably be wet. 40
The research was carried out using a particular species of
…………………………….. .
Cam IELTS 16 reading test 4 Roman tunnels
The Romans, who once controlled areas of Europe, North Africa and Asia
Minor, adopted the construction techniques of other civilizations to build tunnels in their territories
The Persians, who lived in present-day Iran, were one of the first civilizations to build
tunnels that provided a reliable supply of water to human settlements in dry areas. In
the early first millennium BCE, they introduced the qanat method of tunnel
construction, which consisted of placing posts over a hill in a straight line, to ensure
that the tunnel kept to its route, and then digging vertical shafts down into the ground
at regular intervals. Underground, workers removed the earth from between the ends
of the shafts, creating a tunnel. The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using
the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work. Once the tunnel was
completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal,
which supplied water for human use. Remarkably, some built by the Persians qanats
2,700 years ago are still in use today.
They later passed on their knowledge to the Romans, who also used
the qanat method to construct water-supply tunnels for agriculture.
Roman qanat tunnels were constructed with vertical shafts dug at intervals of
between 30 and 60 meters. The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds
to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone
lid. To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod
placed across the top of each shaft and made sure that the weight at the end of it
hung in the center of the shaft. Plumb lines were also used to measure the depth of
the shaft and to determine the slope of the tunnel. The 5.6 kilometer Long Claudius
tunnel, built in 41 CE to drain the Fucine Lake in central Italy, had shafts that were up
to 122 meters deep, took 11 years to build and involved approximately 30,000 workers.
By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called
the counter- excavation method, in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends.
It was used to cut through high mountains when the qanat method was not a
practical alternative. This method required greater planning and advanced knowledge
of surveying, mathematics and geometry as both ends of a tunnel had to meet
correctly at the center of the mountain. Adjustments to the direction of the tunnel also
had to be made whenever builders encountered geological problems or when it
deviated from its set path. They constantly checked the tunnel’s advancing direction.
For example, by looking back at the light that penetrated through the tunnel mouth,
and made corrections whenever necessary. Large deviations could happen, and they
could result in one end of the tunnel not being usable. An inscription written on the
side of a 428-meter tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct
system in modern-day Algeria, describes how the two teams of builders missed each
other in the mountain and how the later construction of a lateral link between both
corridors corrected the initial error.
The Romans dug tunnels for their roads using the counter-excavation method,
whenever they encountered obstacles such as hills or mountains that were too high
for roads to pass over. An example is the 37-meter-long, 6-meter-high, Furlo Pass
Tunnel built in Italy in 69-79 CE. Remarkably, a modern road still uses this tunnel
today. Tunnels were also built for mineral extraction. Miners would locate a mineral
vein and then pursue it with shafts and tunnels underground. Traces of such tunnels
used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales. When the sole
purpose of a tunnel was mineral extraction, construction required less planning, as
the tunnel route was determined by the mineral vein.
Roman tunnel projects were carefully planned and carried out. The length of time it
took to construct a tunnel depended on the method being used and the type of rock
being excavated. The qanat construction method was usually faster than the counter-
excavation method as it was more straightforward. This was because the mountain
could be excavated not only from the tunnel mouths but also from shafts. The type of
rock could also influence construction times. When the rock was hard, the Romans
employed a technique called fire quenching which consisted of heating the rock with
fire, and then suddenly cooling it with cold water so that it would crack.
Progress through hard rock could be very slow, and it was not uncommon for tunnels
to take years, if not decades, to be built. Construction marks left on a Roman tunnel
in Bologna show that the rate of advance through solid rock was 30 centimeters per
day. In contrast, the rate of advance of the Claudius tunnel can be calculated at 1.4
meters per day. Most tunnels had inscriptions showing the names of patrons who
ordered construction and sometimes the name of the architect. For example, the 1.4-
kilometer Cevlik tunnel in Turkey, built to divert the floodwater threatening the harbor
of the ancient city of Seleuceia Pieria, had inscriptions on the entrance, still visible
today, that also indicate that the tunnel was started in 69 CE and was completed in 81 CE.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. 7
The counter-excavation method completely replaced the qanat method in the 6th century BCE TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
Only experienced builders were employed to construct a tunnel using the counter- excavation method. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 9
The information about a problem that occurred during the construction of the Saldae
aqueduct system was found in an ancient book. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
The mistake made by the builders of the Saldae aqueduct system was that the two
parts of the tunnel failed to meet. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. 11
What type of mineral were the Dolaucothi mines in Wales built to extract? 12
In addition to the patron, whose name might be carved onto a tunnel? 13
What part of Seleuceia Pieria was the Çevlik tunnel built to protect?
Changes in reading habits
What are the implications of the way we read today?
Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and
toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older kids don’t
read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on
tablets or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Unbeknown to most of us, an
invisible, game-changing transformation links everyone in this picture: the neuronal
circuit that underlies the brain’s ability to read is subtly, rapidly changing and this has
implications for everyone from the pre-reading toddler to the expert adult.
As work in neurosciences indicates, the acquisition of literacy necessitated a new
circuit in our species’ brain more than 6,000 years ago. That circuit evolved from a
very simple mechanism for decoding basic information, like the number of goats in
one’s herd, to the present, highly elaborated reading brain. My research depicts how
the present reading brain enables the development of some of our most important
intellectual and affective processes: internalized knowledge, analogical reasoning,
and inference; perspective-taking and empathy; critical analysis and the generation
of insight. Research surfacing in many parts of the world now cautions that each of
these essential ‘deep reading’ processes may be under threat as we move into
digital- based modes of reading.
This is not a simple, binary issue of print versus digital reading and technological
innovation. As MIT scholar Sherry Turkle has written, we do not err as a society when
we innovate but when we ignore what we disrupt or diminish while innovating. In this
hinge moment between print and digital cultures, society needs to confront what is
diminishing in the expert reading circuit, what our children and older students are not
developing, and what we can do about it.
We know from research that the reading circuit is not given to human beings through
a genetic blueprint like vision or language; it needs an environment to develop.
Further, it will adapt to that environment’s requirements — from different writing
systems to the characteristics of whatever medium is used. If the dominant medium
advantages processes that are fast, multi-task oriented and well-suited for large
volumes of information, like the current digital medium, so will the reading circuit. As
UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield writes, the result is that less attention and time
will be allocated to slower, time-demanding deep reading processes.
Increasing reports from educators and from researchers in psychology and the
humanities bear this out. English literature scholar and teacher Mark Edmundson
describes how many college students actively avoid the classic literature of the 19th
and 20th centuries in favour of something simpler as they no longer have the
patience to read longer, denser, more difficult texts. We should be less concerned
with students’ ‘cognitive impatience’, however, than by what may underlie it: the
potential inability of large numbers of students to read with a level of critical analysis
sufficient to comprehend the complexity of thought and argument found in more demanding texts.
Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling
downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college
students. In Stavanger, Norway, psychologist Anne Mangen and her colleagues
studied how high school students comprehend the same material in different
mediums. Mangen’s group asked subjects questions about a short story whose plot
had universal student appeal; half of the students read the story on a tablet, the other
half in paperback. Results indicated that students who read on print were superior in
their comprehension to screen-reading peers, particularly in their ability to sequence
detail and reconstruct the plot in chronological order.
Ziming Liu from San Jose State University has conducted a series of studies which
indicate that the ‘new norm’ in reading is skimming, involving word-spotting and
browsing through the text. Many readers now use a pattern when reading in which
they sample the first line and then word- spot through the rest of the text. When the
reading brain skims like this, it reduces time allocated to deep reading processes. In
other words, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s
feelings, to perceive beauty, and to create thoughts of the reader’s own.
The possibility that critical analysis, empathy and other deep reading processes
could become the unintended ‘collateral damage’ of our digital culture is not a
straightforward binary issue about print versus digital reading. It is about how we all
have begun to read on various mediums and how that changes not only what we
read, but also the purposes for which we read. Nor is it only about the young. The
subtle atrophy of critical analysis and empathy affects us all equally. It affects our
ability to navigate a constant bombardment of information. It incentivizes a retreat to
the most familiar stores of unchecked information, which require and receive no
analysis, leaving us susceptible to false information and irrational ideas.
There’s an old rule in neuroscience that does not alter with age: use it or lose it. It is a
very hopeful principle when applied to critical thought in the reading brain because it
implies choice. The story of the changing reading brain is hardly finished. We
possess both the science and the technology to identify and redress the changes in
how we read before they become entrenched. If we work to understand exactly what
we will lose, alongside the extraordinary new capacities that the digital world has
brought us, there is as much reason for excitement as caution.
Choose the correct letter , A, B, C or D. Write your answers in boxes on your reading answer sheet. 14-17 14
What is the writer’s main point in the first paragraph?
A. Our use of technology is having a hidden effect on us.
B. Technology can be used to help youngsters to read.
C. Travellers should be encouraged to use technology on planes.
D. Playing games is a more popular use of technology than reading. 15
What main point does Sherry Turkle make about innovation?
A. Technological innovation has led to a reduction in print reading.
B. We should pay attention to what might be lost when innovation occurs.
C. We should encourage more young people to become involved in innovation.
D. There is a difference between developing products and developing ideas. 16
What point is the writer making in the fourth paragraph?
A. Humans have an inborn ability to read and write.
B. Reading can be done using many different mediums.
C. Writing systems make unexpected demands on the brain.
D. Some brain circuits adjust to whatever is required of them. 17
According to Mark Edmundson, the attitude of college students…
A. has changed the way he teaches.
B. has influenced what they select to read.
C. does not worry him as much as it does others.
D. does not match the views of the general public.
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes on your reading answer sheet. 18-22 A. fast B. isolated C. emotional D. worrying E. many F. hard G. combined H. thorough Studies on digital screen use
There have been many studies on digital screen use,
showing some (18) …………………………. trends.
Psychologist Anne Mangen gave high-school students
a short story to read, half using digital and half using
print mediums. Her team then used a question & answer technique to find out
how (19) …………………………. each group’s
understanding of the plot was. The findings showed a
clear pattern in the responses, with those who read screens finding the order of
information (20) ………………………… to recall.
Studies by Ziming Liu show that students are tending
to read (21) ………………………… words and Studies on digital screen use
phrases in a text to save time. This approach, she says,
gives the reader a superficial understanding of
the (22) ………………………… content of material, leaving no time for thought. 23
The medium we used to read can affect our choice of reading content. YES NO NOT GIVEN 24
Some age groups are more likely to lose their complex reading skills than others. YES NO NOT GIVEN 25
False information has become more widespread in today’s digital era. YES NO NOT GIVEN 26
We still have opportunities to rectify the problems that technology is presenting. YES NO NOT GIVEN
Attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence A.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can already predict the future. Police forces are using it to
map when and where crime is likely to occur. Doctors can use it to predict when a
patient is most likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Researchers are even trying to
give AI imagination so it can plan for unexpected consequences.
Many decisions in our lives require a good forecast, and AI is almost always better at
forecasting than we are. Yet for all these technological advances, we still seem to
deeply lack confidence in Al predictions. Recent cases show that people don’t like
relying on AI and prefer to trust human experts, even if these experts are wrong.
If we want AI to really benefit people, we need to find a way to get people to trust it.
To do that, we need to understand why people are so reluctant to trust AI in the first place. B.
Take the case of Watson for Oncology, one of technology giant IBM’s supercomputer
programs. Their attempt to promote this program to cancer doctors was a PR
disaster. The AI promised to deliver top-quality recommendations on the treatment of
12 cancers that accounted for 80% of the world’s eases. But when doctors first
interacted with Watson, they found themselves in a rather difficult situation. On the
one hand, if Watson provided guidance about a treatment that coincided with their
own opinions, physicians did not see much point in Watson’s recommendations. The
supercomputer was simply telling them what they already knew, and these
recommendations did not change the actual treatment.
On the other hand, if Watson generated a recommendation that contradicted the
experts’ opinion, doctors would typically conclude that Watson wasn’t competent. And
the machine wouldn’t be able to explain why its treatment was plausible because its
machine-learning algorithms were simply too complex to be fully understood by
humans. Consequently, this has caused even more suspicion and disbelief, leading
many doctors to ignore the seemingly outlandish AI recommendations and stick to their own expertise. C.
This is just one example of people's lack of confidence in AI and their reluctance to
accept what AI has to offer. Trust in other people is often based on our understanding
of how others think and having experience of their reliability. This helps create a
psychological feeling of safety. AI, on the other hand, is still fairly new and unfamiliar
to most people. Even if it can be technically explained (and that’s not always the
case), AI’s decision-making process is usually too difficult for most people to
comprehend. And interacting with something we don’t understand can cause anxiety
and give us a sense that we’re losing control.
Many people are also simply not familiar with many instances of AI actually working,
because it often happens in the background. Instead they are acutely aware of
instances where AI goes wrong. Embarrassing AI failures receive a disproportionate
amount of media attention, emphasising the message that we cannot rely on
technology. Machine learning is not foolproof, in part because the humans who design it aren’t. D.
Feelings about AI run deep. In a recent experiment, people from a range of
backgrounds were given various sci-fi films about AI to watch and then asked
questions about automation in everyday life. It was found that, regardless of whether
the film they watched depicted AI in a positive or negative light, simply watching a
cinematic vision of our technological future polarised the participants’ attitudes.
Optimists became more extreme in their enthusiasm for AI and sceptics became even more guarded.
This suggests people use relevant evidence about AI in a biased manner to support
their existing attitudes, a deep-rooted human tendency known as “confirmation bias”.
As AI is represented more and more in media and entertainment, it could lead to a
society split between those who benefit from AI and those who reject it. More
pertinently, refusing to accept the advantages offered by AI could place a large group
of people at a serious disadvantage. E.
Fortunately, we already have some ideas about how to improve trust in AI. Simply
having previous experience with AI can significantly improve people’s opinions about
the technology, as was found in the study mentioned above. Evidence also suggests
the more you use other technologies such as the internet, the more you trust them.
Another solution may be to reveal more about the algorithms which AI uses and the
purposes they serve. Several high-profile social media companies and online
marketplaces already release transparency reports about government requests and
surveillance disclosures. A similar practice for AI could help people have a better
understanding of the way algorithmic decisions are made. F.
Research suggests that allowing people some control over AI decision-making could
also improve trust and enable AI to learn from human experience. For example, one
study showed that when people were allowed the freedom to slightly modify an
algorithm, they felt more satisfied with its decisions, more likely to believe it was
superior and more likely to use it in the future.
We don’t need to understand the intricate inner workings of AI systems, but if people
are given a degree of responsibility for how they are implemented, they will be more
willing to accept AI into their lives. List of Headings
i. An increasing divergence of attitudes towards AI
ii. Reasons why we have more faith in human judgement than in AI
iii. The superiority of AI projections over those made by humans
iv. The process by which AI can help us make good decisions
v. The advantages of involving users in AI processes
vi. Widespread distrust of an AI innovation
vii. Encouraging openness about how AI functions
viii. A surprisingly successful AI application 27 Section A 28 Section B 29 Section C 30 Section D 31 Section E 32 Section F 33
What is the writer doing in Section A?
A. providing a solution to a concern
B. justifying an opinion about an issue
C. highlighting the existence of a problem
D. explaining the reasons for a phenomenon 34
According to Section C, why might some people be reluctant to accept AI?
A. They are afraid it will replace humans in decision-making jobs.
B. Its complexity makes them feel that they are at a disadvantage.
C. They would rather wait for the technology to be tested over a period of time.
D. Misunderstandings about how it works make it seem more challenging than it is. 35
What does the writer say about the media in Section C of the text?
A. It leads the public to be mistrustful of Al.
B. It devotes an excessive amount of attention to Al.
C. Its reports of incidents involving AI are often inaccurate.
D. It gives the impression that AI failures are due to designer error. 36
Subjective depictions of AI in sci-fi films make people change their opinions about automation. YES NO NOT GIVEN 37
Portrayals of AI in media and entertainment are likely to become more positive. YES NO NOT GIVEN 38
Rejection of the possibilities of AI may have a negative effect on many people’s lives. YES NO NOT GIVEN 39
Familiarity with AI has very little impact on people’s attitudes to the technology. YES NO NOT GIVEN 40
AI applications which users are able to modify are more likely to gain consumer approval. YES NO NOT GIVEN
C17 IELTS reading test 1
The development of the London underground railway
In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the
central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the
overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the
capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not
be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was
that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within
consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn
traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to
travel 8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to
resolve these problems, but few succeeded.
Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was
Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both
social and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link
the overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time.
His idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly
constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work.
Pearson’s ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he
submitted a plan to Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from
another group for an underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.
The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in
August 1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from
the Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at
Farringdon Street - a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in
raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the
critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse
under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers
would be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and his partners persisted.
The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the
heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-
year period, £1m was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to
minimise the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be
completed in 21 months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It
was built just below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench
about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily held
up with timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was
added to create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the road above rebuilt.
The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first
underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried
between Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the
end of the Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made.
Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line were being
authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east of
London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with
steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines
were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that
were fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke
and fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.
Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on
London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the existing
underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended to the
suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of
construction was not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to tunnel deep underground.
Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not
be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric
motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that
the world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became
possible. The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the
River Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric
engines. The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof
because it was thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel
walls. The line was not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power
supply. Although the City & South London Railway was a great technical
achievement, it did not make a profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway,
known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’, began operation using new electric locomotives. It
was very popular and soon afterwards new railways and extensions were added to
the growing tube network. By 1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in place.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The London underground railway The problem
• The 1..........................................of London increased rapidly between 1800 and 1850
• The streets were full of horse-drawn vehicles The proposed solution
• Charles Pearson, a solicitor, suggested building an underground railway
• Building the railway would make it possible to move people to better housing in
the 2..........................................
• A number of 3..........................................agreed with Pearson’s idea
• The company initially had problems getting the
4..........................................needed for the project
• Negative articles about the project appeared in the 5.......................................... The construction
• The chosen route did not require many buildings to be pulled down
• The ‘cut and cover’ method was used to construct the tunnels
• With the completion of the brick arch, the tunnel was covered with
6.......................................... 7
Other countries had built underground railways before the Metropolitan line opened. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
More people than predicted travelled on the Metropolitan line on the first day. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 9
The use of ventilation shafts failed to prevent pollution in the tunnels. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
A different approach from the ‘cut and cover’ technique was required in London’s central area. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
The windows on City & South London trains were at eye level. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
The City & South London Railway was a financial success. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
Trains on the Tuppenny Tube’ nearly always ran on time. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Stadiums: past, present and future A
Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the
public could watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back
as the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great
medieval cathedrals and the grand 19th- and 20th-century railway stations which
dominated urban skylines in later eras.
Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs
can soar above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the
Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair.
But this need not be the case. History shows that stadiums can drive urban
development and adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and
planners are finding new ways to adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which
became emblematic of modernisation during the 20th century. B
The amphitheatre* of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000
spectators, is perhaps the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built
by the Romans in 90 AD, it became a fortress with four towers after the fifth century,
and was then transformed into a village containing more than 200 houses. With the
growing interest in conservation during the 19th century, it was converted back into
an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the structure to its original use
as a venue for public spectacles.
Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for
30,000 spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40
years before Rome’s famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is
currently considered one of the world’s prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics. C
The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza
dell’Anfiteatro, is yet another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming
absorbed into the fabric of the city. The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was
progressively filled with buildings from the Middle Ages until the 19th century,
variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison. But rather than reverting to an
arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo
Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops
and residences surrounding the public square. D
There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres
intended for games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th
century, as stadiums were developed using new products such as steel and
reinforced concrete, and made use of bright lights for night-time matches.
Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only
and surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as
accessible to the general public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat. E
But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help
improve the city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular
success: the stadium as an urban hub, and as a power plant.
There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services
that serve a function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres,
restaurants and bars, children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use
developments such as this reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making
more efficient use of land and helping to regenerate urban spaces.
This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of
catering only to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of
this in the UK: the mixed-use facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a
blueprint for many other stadiums in the world. F
The phenomenon of stadiums as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy
problems can be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a
smart grid, which is an electricity supply network that uses digital communications
technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, without significant energy
losses. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes, because their canopies have a large
surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high enough (more than 40
metres) to make use of micro wind turbines.
Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as
power plants, which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium.
The latter, inaugurated in 2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14
GWh of electricity annually. This reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660
tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the surrounding area when the stadium is not in
use. This is proof that a stadium can serve its city, and have a decidedly positive
impact in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions. G
Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every
era, the stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to
residential village, public space to theatre and most recently a field for
experimentation in advanced engineering. The stadium of today now brings together
multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a sustainable future.
*amphitheatre: (especially in Greek and Roman architecture) an open circular or oval
building with a central space surrounded by tiers of seats for spectators, for the
presentation of dramatic or sporting events 14
a mention of negative attitudes towards stadium building projects 15
figures demonstrating the environmental benefits of a certain stadium 16
examples of the wide range of facilities available at some new stadiums 17
reference to the disadvantages of the stadiums built during a certain era Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet. Roman amphitheatres
The Roman stadiums of Europe have proved very versatile. The amphitheatre of
Arles, for example, was converted first into a 18........................................................,
then into a residential area and finally into an arena where spectators could watch
19.........................................................Meanwhile, the arena in Verona, one of the
oldest Roman amphitheatres, is famous today as a venue where
20....................................................... is performed. The site of Lucca’s amphitheatre
has also been used for many purposes over the centuries, including the storage of
21.........................................................It is now a market square with
22........................................................and homes incorporated into the remains of the Roman amphitheatre.
When comparing twentieth-century stadiums to ancient amphitheatres in Section D,
which TWO negative features does the writer mention?
A They are less imaginatively designed. B They are less spacious.
C They are in less convenient locations. D They are less versatile.
E They are made of less durable materials. 23 24
Which TWO advantages of modern stadium design does the writer mention?
A offering improved amenities for the enjoyment of sports events
B bringing community life back into the city environment
C facilitating research into solar and wind energy solutions
D enabling local residents to reduce their consumption of electricity
E providing a suitable site for the installation of renewable power generators 25 26 To catch a king
Anna Keay reviews Charles Spencers hook about the hunt for King Charles II during
the English Civil War of the seventeenth century
Charles Spencer’s latest book, To Catch a King, tells us the story of the hunt for King
Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in
September 1651. And what a story it is. After his father was executed by the
Parliamentarians in 1649, the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles
his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots, thereby accepting
Presbyterianism* as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots.
His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland
in a pre-emptive strike. This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England. The two
sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651. After
being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the
Parliamentarian army, the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national
manhunt, with a huge sum offered for his capture. Over the following six weeks he
managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the
Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France. For the next nine years, the
penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of loyal supporters.
Years later, after his restoration as king, the 50-year-old Charles II requested a
meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys. His intention when asking Pepys to
commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was
never forgotten. Over two three-hour sittings, the king related to him in great detail
his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive. As the king and
secretary settled down (a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter), Charles
commenced his story: ‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of
recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’
One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own
narrative as well as those of his supporters, is just how close the reader gets to the
action. The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives’ doings provides delicious details: the
cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears, the use of walnut leaves to dye
his pale skin, and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in
Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below. Spencer
draws out both the humour - such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend
Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity - and
the emotional tension when the secret of the king’s presence was cautiously revealed to his supporters.
Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth
that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his
father, they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army, but had
instead firmly bolted their doors. This was partly because he rode at the head of what
looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because, after almost a decade of civil
war, people were desperate to avoid it beginning again. This makes it all the more
interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after. As well as
retelling it to anyone who would listen, causing eye-rolling among courtiers, he set in
train a series of initiatives to memorialise it. There was to be a new order of chivalry,
the Knights of the Royal Oak. A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the
episode were produced, including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a
set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run. In 1660, Charles II
commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs*
carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber. It is hard to
imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically, or
indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.
Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation. His
pacey, readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life
the details of the great tale. He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king
and the fierce republican regime that hunted him, and he succeeds in his desire to
explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject
have done. Indeed, the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found
himself at Worcester in the first place, which for some will be reason alone to read To Catch a King.
The tantalising question left, in the end, is that of what it all meant. Would Charles II
have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? The days and
nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way. Did the need to assume
disguises, to survive on wit and charm alone, to use trickery and subterfuge to
escape from tight corners help form him? This is the one area where the book
doesn’t quite hit the mark. Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an
ineffective, pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man (neither is it
accurate), or to the complexity of his character. But this one niggle aside, To Catch a
King is an excellent read, and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale
will find they have a treat in store.
*Presbyterianism: part of the reformed Protestant religion
*cherub: an image of angelic children used in paintings
The story behind the hunt for Charles II
Charles II’s father was executed by the Parliamentarian forces in 1649. Charles II
then formed a 27..........................................with the Scots, and in order to become
King of Scots, he abandoned an important 28..........................................that
was held by his father and had contributed to his father’s death. The opposing sides
then met outside Worcester in 1651. The battle led to a
29..........................................for the Parliamentarians and Charles had to flee for his
life. A 30..........................................was offered for Charles’s capture, but after six
weeks spent in hiding, he eventually managed to reach the
31..........................................of continental Europe. A. military C. widespread innovation B. large reward conspiracy D. relative E. new F. decisive victory safety government G. political H. strategic I. popular solution debate alliance J. religious conviction 32
Charles chose Pepys for the task because he considered him to be trustworthy. YES NO NOT GIVEN 33
Charles’s personal recollection of the escape lacked sufficient detail. YES NO NOT GIVEN 34
Charles indicated to Pepys that he had planned his escape before the battle. YES NO NOT GIVEN 35
The inclusion of Charles’s account is a positive aspect of the book. YES NO NOT GIVEN 36
What is the reviewer’s main purpose in the first paragraph?
A. to describe what happened during the Battle of Worcester
B. to give an account of the circumstances leading to Charles II's escape
C. to provide details of the Parliamentarians’ political views
D. to compare Charles II’s beliefs with those of his father 37
Why does the reviewer include examples of the fugitives’ behaviour in the third paragraph?
A. to explain how close Charles II came to losing his life
B. to suggest that Charles II’s supporters were badly prepared
C. to illustrate how the events of the six weeks are brought to life
D. to argue that certain aspects are not as well known as they should be 38
What point does the reviewer make about Charles II in the fourth paragraph?
A. He chose to celebrate what was essentially a defeat.
B. He misunderstood the motives of his opponents.
C. He aimed to restore people’s faith in the monarchy.
D. He was driven by a desire to be popular. 39
What does the reviewer say about Charles Spencer in the fifth paragraph?
A. His decision to write the book comes as a surprise.
B. He takes an unbiased approach to the subject matter.
C. His descriptions of events would be better if they included more detail.
D. He chooses language that is suitable for a twenty-first-century audience. 40
When the reviewer says the book ‘doesn’t quite hit the mark’, she is making the point that
A. it overlooks the impact of events on ordinary people.
B. it lacks an analysis of prevalent views on monarchy.
C. it omits any references to the deceit practised by Charles II during his time in hiding.
D. it fails to address whether Charles M’s experiences had a lasting influence on him.
C17 IELTS reading test 2 The Dead Sea Scrolls
In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and
sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the
Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of these young shepherds
tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a
shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and stumbled
across a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained scrolls with writing on
them. The teenagers took the seven scrolls to a nearby town where they were sold
for a small sum to a local antiquities dealer. Word of the find spread, and Bedouins
and archaeologists eventually unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll
fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900
manuscripts. It soon became clear that this was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made.
The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago
between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still the subject of scholarly debate even today.
According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a population that inhabited the
area until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 CE. The area was
known as Judea at that time, and the people are thought to have belonged to a group
called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.
The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some
fragments written in an ancient version of its alphabet thought to have fallen out of
use in the fifth century BCE. But there are other languages as well. Some scrolls are
in Aramaic, the language spoken by many inhabitants of the region from the sixth
century BCE to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In addition, several texts feature
translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.
The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the
Bible except for the Book of Esther. The only entire book of the Hebrew Bible
preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first
century BCE, is considered the earliest biblical manuscript still in existence. Along
with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations and
religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.
The writing on the Dead Sea Scrolls is mostly in black or occasionally red ink, and
the scrolls themselves are nearly all made of either parchment (animal skin) or an
early form of paper called ‘papyrus’. The only exception is the scroll numbered 3Q15,
which was created out of a combination of copper and tin. Known as the Copper
Scroll, this curious document features letters chiselled onto metal - perhaps, as some
have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. One of the most intriguing
manuscripts from Qumran, this is a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of
gold and silver caches. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, it
describes 64 underground hiding places that supposedly contain riches buried for
safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the
Romans pillaged Judea during the first century CE. According to various hypotheses,
the treasure belonged to local people, or was rescued from the Second Temple
before its destruction or never existed to begin with.
Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been on interesting journeys. In 1948, a Syrian
Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven
scrolls from a Jerusalem shoemaker and part-time antiquity dealer, paying less than
$100 for them. He then travelled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered
them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 1954, he placed an
advertisement in the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal - under the
category ‘Miscellaneous Items for Sale’ - that read: ‘Biblical Manuscripts dating back
to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or
religious institution by an individual or group.’ Fortunately, Israeli archaeologist and
statesman Yigael Yadin negotiated their purchase and brought the scrolls back to
Jerusalem, where they remain to this day.
In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the
last untranslated scrolls. The university’s Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov
spent one year reassembling the 60 fragments that make up the scroll. Deciphered
from a band of coded text on parchment, the find provides insight into the community
of people who wrote it and the 364-day calendar they would have used. The scroll
names celebrations that indicate shifts in seasons and details two yearly religious
events known from another Dead Sea Scroll. Only one more known scroll remains untranslated.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. The Dead Sea Scrolls Discovery Qumran, 1946/7
• three Bedouin shepherds in their teens were near an opening on side of cliff
• heard a noise of breaking when one teenager threw a 1..........................................
• teenagers went into the 2..........................................and
found a number of containers made of 3.......................................... The scrolls
• date from between 150 BCE and 70 CE
• thought to have been written by group of people known as the
4..........................................
• written mainly in the 5..........................................language
• most are on religious topics, written using ink on parchment or papyrus 6
The Bedouin teenagers who found the scrolls were disappointed by how little money they received for them. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
There is agreement among academics about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
Most of the books of the Bible written on the scrolls are incomplete. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 9
The information on the Copper Scroll is written in an unusual way. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
Mar Samuel was given some of the scrolls as a gift. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
In the early 1950s, a number of educational establishments in the US were keen to buy scrolls from Mar Samuel. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
The scroll that was pieced together in 2017 contains information about annual
"occasions in the Qumran area 2,000 years ago." TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
Academics at the University of Haifa are currently researching how to decipher the final scroll. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
A second attempt at domesticating the tomato A
It took at least 3,000 years for humans to learn how to domesticate the wild tomato
and cultivate it for food. Now two separate teams in Brazil and China have done it all
over again in less than three years. And they have done it better in some ways, as
the re-domesticated tomatoes are more nutritious than the ones we eat at present.
This approach relies on the revolutionary CRISPR genome editing technique, in
which changes are deliberately made to the DNA of a living cell, allowing genetic
material to be added, removed or altered. The technique could not only improve
existing crops, but could also be used to turn thousands of wild plants into useful and
appealing foods. In fact, a third team in the US has already begun to do this with a
relative of the tomato called the groundcherry.
This fast-track domestication could help make the world’s food supply healthier and
far more resistant to diseases, such as the rust fungus devastating wheat crops.
'This could transform what we eat,' says Jorg Kudla at the University of Munster in
Germany, a member of the Brazilian team. 'There are 50,000 edible plants in the
world, but 90 percent of our energy comes from just 15 crops.'
‘We can now mimic the known domestication course of major crops like rice, maize,
sorghum or others,’ says Caixia Gao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Then we might try to domesticate plants that have never been domesticated.’ B
Wild tomatoes, which are native to the Andes region in South America, produce pea-
sized fruits. Over many generations, peoples such as the Aztecs and Incas
transformed the plant by selecting and breeding plants with mutations* in their
genetic structure, which resulted in desirable traits such as larger fruit.
But every time a single plant with a mutation is taken from a larger population for
breeding, much genetic diversity is lost. And sometimes the desirable mutations
come with less desirable traits. For instance, the tomato strains grown for
supermarkets have lost much of their flavour.
By comparing the genomes of modern plants to those of their wild relatives,
biologists have been working out what genetic changes occurred as plants were
domesticated. The teams in Brazil and China have now used this knowledge to
reintroduce these changes from scratch while maintaining or even enhancing the
desirable traits of wild strains. C
Kudla’s team made six changes altogether. For instance, they tripled the size of fruit
by editing a gene called FRUIT WEIGHT, and increased the number of tomatoes per
truss by editing another called MULTIFLORA.
While the historical domestication of tomatoes reduced levels of the red pigment
lycopene - thought to have potential health benefits - the team in Brazil managed to
boost it instead. The wild tomato has twice as much lycopene as cultivated ones; the
newly domesticated one has five times as much.
'They are quite tasty,' says Kudla. ‘A little bit strong. And very aromatic.’
The team in China re-domesticated several strains of wild tomatoes with desirable
traits lost in domesticated tomatoes. In this way they managed to create a strain
resistant to a common disease called bacterial spot race, which can devastate yields.
They also created another strain that is more salt tolerant - and has higher levels of vitamin C. D
Meanwhile, Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute in New York state
decided to use the same approach to domesticate the groundcherry or goldenberry
(Physalis pruinosa) for the first time. This fruit looks similar to the closely related
Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana).
Groundcherries are already sold to a limited extent in the US but they are hard to
produce because the plant has a sprawling growth habit and the small fruits fall off
the branches when ripe. Van Eck’s team has edited the plants to increase fruit size,
make their growth more compact and to stop fruits dropping. ‘There’s potential for
this to be a commercial crop,’ says Van Eck. But she adds that taking the work further
would be expensive because of the need to pay for a licence for the CRISPR
technology and get regulatory approval. E
This approach could boost the use of many obscure plants, says Jonathan Jones of
the Sainsbury Lab in the UK. But it will be hard for new foods to grow so popular with
farmers and consumers that they become new staple crops, he thinks.
The three teams already have their eye on other plants that could be ‘catapulted into
the mainstream’, including foxtail, oat-grass and cowpea. By choosing wild plants
that are drought or heat tolerant, says Gao, we could create crops that will thrive even as the planet warms.
But Kudla didn’t want to reveal which species were in his team’s sights, because
CRISPR has made the process so easy. ‘Any one with the right skills could go to their lab and do this.’
*mutations: changes in an organism’s genetic structure that can be passed down to later generations 14
a reference to a type of tomato that can resist a dangerous infection 15
an explanation of how problems can arise from focusing only on a certain type of tomato plant. 16
a number of examples of plants that are not cultivated at present but could be useful as food sources 17
a comparison between the early domestication of the tomato and more recent research 18
a personal reaction to the flavour of a tomato that has been genetically edited List of Researchers A Jorg Kudla B Caixia Gao C Joyce Van Eck D Jonathan Jones 19
Domestication of certain plants could allow them to adapt to future environmental challenges. 20
The idea of growing and eating unusual plants may not be accepted on a large scale. 21
It is not advisable for the future direction of certain research to be made public. 22
Present efforts to domesticate one wild fruit are limited by the costs involved. 23
Humans only make use of a small proportion of the plant food available on Earth.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. 24
An undesirable trait such as loss of..........................................may be caused by a mutation in a tomato gene. 25
By modifying one gene in a tomato plant, researchers made the tomato three times
its original........................................... 26
A type of tomato which was not badly affected by.........................................., and was
rich "in vitamin C, was produced by a team of researchers in China. Insight or evolution?
Two scientists consider the origins of discoveries and other innovative behavior
Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such
intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert
Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often disregards the
person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors.
Conventional wisdom also places great weight on insight in promoting breakthrough
scientific achievements, as if ideas spontaneously pop into someone’s head - fully formed and functional.
There may be some limited truth to this view. However, we believe that it largely
misrepresents the real nature of scientific discovery, as well as that of creativity and
innovation in many other realms of human endeavor.
Setting aside such greats as Darwin and Einstein - whose monumental contributions
are duly celebrated - we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error,
where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or
more steps to the right or left. This evolutionary view of human innovation
undermines the notion of creative genius and recognizes the cumulative nature of scientific progress.
Consider one unheralded scientist: John Nicholson, a mathematical physicist working
in the 1910s who postulated the existence of‘proto-elements’ in outer space. By
combining different numbers of weights of these proto-elements’ atoms, Nicholson
could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. These
successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that Nicholson was wrong about
the presence of proto-elements: they do not actually exist. Yet, amid his often fanciful
theories and wild speculations, Nicholson also proposed a novel theory about the
structure of atoms. Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic
theory, jumped off from this interesting idea to conceive his now-famous model of the atom.
What are we to make of this story? One might simply conclude that science is a
collective and cumulative enterprise. That may be true, but there may be a deeper
insight to be gleaned. We propose that science is constantly evolving, much as
species of animals do. In biological systems, organisms may display new
characteristics that result from random genetic mutations. In the same way, random,
arbitrary or accidental mutations of ideas may help pave the way for advances in
science. If mutations prove beneficial, then the animal or the scientific theory will
continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.
Support for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many
domains. Consider one example of an influential innovation in US horseracing. The
so-called ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement, in which the rider’s foot in his left stirrup is
placed as much as 25 centimeters lower than the right, is believed to confer
important speed advantages when turning on oval tracks. It was developed by a
relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope. Had Westrope conducted
methodical investigations or examined extensive film records in a shrewd plan to
outrun his rivals? Had he foreseen the speed advantage that would be conferred by
riding acey-deucy? No. He suffered a leg injury, which left him unable to fully bend
his left knee. His modification just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand
turning performance. This led to the rapid and widespread adoption of riding acey-
deucy by many riders, a racing style which continues in today’s thoroughbred racing.
Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure,
and also pure serendipity - a happy accident. For example, in the early 1970s, two
employees of the company 3M each had a problem: Spencer Silver had a product - a
glue which was only slightly sticky - and no use for it, while his colleague Art Fry was
trying to figure out how to affix temporary bookmarks in his hymn book without
damaging its pages. The solution to both these problems was the invention of the
brilliantly simple yet phenomenally successful Post-It note. Such examples give lie to
the claim that ingenious, designing minds are responsible for human creativity and
invention. Far more banal and mechanical forces may be at work; forces that are
fundamentally connected to the laws of science.
The notions of insight, creativity and genius are often invoked, but they remain vague
and of doubtful scientific utility, especially when one considers the diverse and
enduring contributions of individuals such as Plato, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare,
Beethoven, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Curie, Pasteur and Edison. These notions
merely label rather than explain the evolution of human innovations. We need
another approach, and there is a promising candidate.
The Law of Effect was advanced by psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1898, some
40 years after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking work on biological
evolution, On the Origin of Species. This simple law holds that organisms tend to
repeat successful behaviors and to refrain from performing unsuccessful ones. Just
like Darwin’s Law of Natural Selection, the Law of Effect involves an entirely
mechanical process of variation and selection, without any end objective in sight.
Of course, the origin of human innovation demands much further study. In particular,
the provenance of the raw material on which the Law of Effect operates is not as
clearly known as that of the genetic mutations on which the Law of Natural Selection
operates. The generation of novel ideas and behaviors may not be entirely random,
but constrained by prior successes and failures - of the current individual (such as
Bohr) or of predecessors (such as Nicholson).
The time seems right for abandoning the naive notions of intelligent design and
genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior. 27
The purpose of the first paragraph is to A. defend particular ideas. B. compare certain beliefs.
C. disprove a widely held view.
D. outline a common assumption. 28
What are the writers doing in the second paragraph? A. criticising an opinion B. justifying a standpoint C. explaining an approach D. supporting an argument 29
In the third paragraph, what do the writers suggest about Darwin and Einstein?
A. They represent an exception to a general rule.
B. Their way of working has been misunderstood.
C. They are an ideal which others should aspire to.
D. Their achievements deserve greater recognition. 30
John Nicholson is an example of a person whose idea
A. established his reputation as an influential scientist.
B. was only fully understood at a later point in history.
C. laid the foundations for someone else’s breakthrough.
D. initially met with scepticism from the scientific community. 31
What is the key point of interest about the ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup placement?
A. the simple reason why it was invented
B. the enthusiasm with which it was adopted
C. the research that went into its development
D. the cleverness of the person who first used it 32
Acknowledging people such as Plato or da Vinci as geniuses will help us understand
the process by which great minds create new ideas. YES NO NOT GIVEN 33
The Law of Effect was discovered at a time when psychologists were seeking a
scientific reason why creativity occurs. YES NO NOT GIVEN 34
The Law of Effect states that no planning is involved in the behaviour of organisms. YES NO NOT GIVEN 35
The Law of Effect sets out clear explanations about the sources of new ideas and behaviours. YES NO NOT GIVEN 36
Many scientists are now turning away from the notion of intelligent design and genius. YES NO NOT GIVEN
The origins of creative behaviour
The traditional view of scientific discovery is that breakthroughs happen when a
single great mind has sudden 37...........................................Although this can occur,
it is not often the case. Advances are more likely to be the result of a longer process.
In some cases, this process involves
38.........................................., such as Nicholson’s theory about proto-elements. In
others, simple necessity may provoke innovation, as with Westrope’s decision to
modify the position of his riding stirrups. There is also often an element of
39.........................................., for example, the coincidence of ideas that led to the
invention of the Post-It note. With both the Law of Natural Selection and the Law of
Effect, there may be no clear 40.......................................... involved, but merely a
process of variation and selection. A invention B goals C compromise D mistakes E luck F inspiration G experiments
C17 IELTS reading test 3 The thylacine
The extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, was a marsupial* that bore
a superficial resemblance to a dog. Its most distinguishing feature was the 13-19
dark brown stripes over its back, beginning at the rear of the body and extending
onto the tail. The thylacine’s average nose-to-tail length for adult males was 162.6
cm, compared to 153.7 cm for females.
The thylacine appeared to occupy most types of terrain except dense rainforest, with
open eucalyptus forest thought to be its prime habitat. In terms of feeding, it was
exclusively carnivorous, and its stomach was muscular with an ability to distend so
that it could eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to
compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. The
thylacine was not a fast runner and probably caught its prey by exhausting it during a
long pursuit. During long-distance chases, thylacines were likely to have relied more
on scent than any other sense. They emerged to hunt during the evening, night and
early morning and tended to retreat to the hills and forest for shelter during the day.
Despite the common name ‘tiger’, the thylacine had a shy, nervous temperament.
Although mainly nocturnal, it was sighted moving during the day and some
individuals were even recorded basking in the sun.
The thylacine had an extended breeding season from winter to spring, with
indications that some breeding took place throughout the year. The thylacine, like all
marsupials, was tiny and hairless when born. Newborns crawled into the pouch on
the belly of their mother, and attached themselves to one of the four teats, remaining
there for up to three months. When old enough to leave the pouch, the young stayed
in a lair such as a deep rocky cave, well-hidden nest or hollow log, whilst the mother hunted.
Approximately 4,000 years ago, the thylacine was widespread throughout New
Guinea and most of mainland Australia, as well as the island of Tasmania. The most
recent, well-dated occurrence of a thylacine on the mainland is a carbon-dated fossil
from Murray Cave in Western Australia, which is around 3,100 years old. Its
extinction coincided closely with the arrival of wild dogs called dingoes in Australia
and a similar predator in New Guinea. Dingoes never reached Tasmania, and most
scientists see this as the main reason for the thylacine’s survival there.
The dramatic decline of the thylacine in Tasmania, which began in the 1830s and
continued for a century, is generally attributed to the relentless efforts of sheep
farmers and bounty hunters** with shotguns. While this determined campaign
undoubtedly played a large part, it is likely that various other factors also contributed
to the decline and eventual extinction of the species. These include competition with
wild dogs introduced by European settlers, loss of habitat along with the
disappearance of prey species, and a distemper-like disease which may also have affected the thylacine.
There was only one successful attempt to breed a thylacine in captivity, at Melbourne
Zoo in 1899. This was despite the large numbers that went through some zoos,
particularly London Zoo and Tasmania’s Hobart Zoo. The famous naturalist John
Gould foresaw the thylacine’s demise when he published his Mammals of
Australia between 1848 and 1863, writing, ‘The numbers of this singular animal will
speedily diminish, extermination will have its full sway, and it will then, like the wolf of
England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past.’
However, there seems to have been little public pressure to preserve the thylacine,
nor was much concern expressed by scientists at the decline of this species in the
decades that followed. A notable exception was T.T. Flynn, Professor of Biology at the
University of Tasmania. In 1914, he was sufficiently concerned about the scarcity of
the thylacine to suggest that some should be captured and placed on a small island.
But it was not until 1929, with the species on the very edge of extinction, that
Tasmania’s Animals and Birds Protection Board passed a motion protecting
thylacines only for the month of December, which was thought to be their prime
breeding season. The last known wild thylacine to be killed was shot by a farmer in
the north-east of Tasmania in 1930, leaving just captive specimens. Official protection
of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced in July 1936, 59 days
before the last known individual died in Hobart Zoo on 7th September, 1936.
There have been numerous expeditions and searches for the thylacine over the
years, none of which has produced definitive evidence that thylacines still exist. The
species was declared extinct by the Tasmanian government in 1986.
*marsupial: a mammal, such as a kangaroo, whose young are born incompletely
developed and are typically carried and suckled in a pouch on the mother's belly
**bounty hunters: people who are paid a reward for killing a wild animal
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. The thylacine Appearance and behaviour • looked rather like a dog
• had a series of stripes along its body and tail
• ate an entirely 1..........................................diet
• probably depended mainly on 2..........................................when hunting
• young spent first months of life inside its mother’s 3.......................................... Decline and extinction
• last evidence in mainland Australia is a 3,100-year-
old 4..........................................
• probably went extinct in mainland Australia due to animals known as dingoes • reduction
in 5..........................................and available sources of food were partly responsible for decline in Tasmania 6
Significant numbers of thylacines were killed by humans from the 1830s onwards. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 7
Several thylacines were born in zoos during the late 1800s. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 8
John Gould’s prediction about the thylacine surprised some biologists. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 9
In the early 1900s, many scientists became worried about the possible extinction of the thylacine. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 10
T. T. Flynn’s proposal to rehome captive thylacines on an island proved to be impractical. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 11
There were still reasonable numbers of thylacines in existence when a piece of
legislation protecting the species during their breeding season was passed. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 12
From 1930 to 1936, the only known living thylacines were all in captivity. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 13
Attempts to find living thylacines are now rarely made. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN Palm oil A
Palm oil is an edible oil derived from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, and is
currently the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It’s almost certainly in the
soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits
we snack on during the day. Why is palm oil so attractive for manufacturers?
Primarily because its unique properties - such as remaining solid at room
temperature - make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation, allowing many
packaged foods on supermarket shelves to have ‘best before’ dates of months, even years, into the future. B
Many farmers have seized the opportunity to maximise the planting of oil palm trees.
Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew
from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland
in the entire world. From a mere two million tonnes of palm oil being produced
annually globally 50 years ago, there are now around 60 million tonnes produced
every single year, a figure looking likely to double or even triple by the middle of the century. C
However, there are multiple reasons why conservationists cite the rapid spread of oil
palm plantations as a major concern. There are countless news stories of
deforestation, habitat destruction and dwindling species populations, all as a direct
result of land clearing to establish oil palm tree monoculture on an industrial scale,
particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Endangered species - most famously the
Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna -
have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations. D
‘Palm oil is surely one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity,’ declares Dr
Farnon Ellwood of the University of the West of England, Bristol. ‘Palm oil is replacing
rainforest, and rainforest is where all the species are. That’s a problem.’ This has led
to some radical questions among environmentalists, such as whether consumers
should try to boycott palm oil entirely.
Meanwhile Bhavani Shankar, Professor at London’s School of Oriental and African
Studies, argues, ‘It’s easy to say that palm oil is the enemy and we should be against
it. It makes for a more dramatic story, and it’s very intuitive. But given the complexity
of the argument, I think a much more nuanced story is closer to the truth.’ E
One response to the boycott movement has been the argument for the vital role palm
oil plays in lifting many millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. Is it
desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply
chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for
their livelihoods? How best to strike a utilitarian balance between these competing
factors has become a serious bone of contention. F
Even the deforestation argument isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Oil palm
plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare
than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high
yield - which is predominantly what makes it so profitable - is potentially also an
ecological benefit. If ten times more palm oil can be produced from a patch of land
than any competing oil, then ten times more land would need to be cleared in order
to produce the same volume of oil from that competitor.
As for the question of carbon emissions, the issue really depends on what oil palm
trees are replacing. Crops vary in the degree to which they sequester carbon - in
other words, the amount of carbon they capture from the atmosphere and store
within the plant. The more carbon a plant sequesters, the more it reduces the effect
of climate change. As Shankar explains: ‘[Palm oil production] actually sequesters
more carbon in some ways than other alternatives. [...] Of course, if you’re cutting
down virgin forest it’s terrible - that’s what’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s
been allowed to get out of hand. But if it’s replacing rice, for example, it might actually sequester more carbon.’ G
The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm
Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other
interested parties. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been
reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their
product to be regarded as officially ‘sustainable’. The RSPO insists upon no virgin
forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other
criteria. Only once these requirements are fully satisfied is the oil allowed to be sold
as certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Recent figures show that the RSPO now
certifies around 12 million tonnes of palm oil annually, equivalent to roughly 21
percent of the world’s total palm oil production. H
There is even hope that oil palm plantations might not need to be such sterile
monocultures, or ‘green deserts’, as Ellwood describes them. New research at
Ellwood’s lab hints at one plant which might make all the difference. The bird’s nest
fern (Asplenium nidus) grows on trees in an epiphytic fashion (meaning it’s
dependent on the tree only for support, not for nutrients), and is native to many
tropical regions, where as a keystone species it performs a vital ecological role.
Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird’s nest fern into oil palm plantations could
potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all
manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects,
amphibians, reptiles and even mammals. 14
examples of a range of potential environmental advantages of oil palm tree cultivation 15
description of an organisation which controls the environmental impact of palm oil production 16
examples of the widespread global use of palm oil 17
reference to a particular species which could benefit the ecosystem of oil palm plantations 18
figures illustrating the rapid expansion of the palm oil industry 19
an economic justification for not opposing the palm oil industry 20
examples of creatures badly affected by the establishment of oil palm plantations
Which TWO statements are made about the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)?
A Its membership has grown steadily over the course of the last decade.
B It demands that certified producers be open and honest about their practices.
C It took several years to establish its set of criteria for sustainable palm oil certification.
D Its regulations regarding sustainability are stricter than those governing other industries.
E It was formed at the request of environmentalists concerned about the loss of virgin forests. 21 22
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. 23
One advantage of palm oil for manufacturers is that it
stays..........................................even when not refrigerated. 24
The..........................................is the best known of the animals suffering habitat loss
as a result of the spread of oil palm plantations. 25
As one of its criteria for the certification of sustainable palm oil, the RSPO insists that
growers check..........................................on a routine basis. 26
Ellwood and his researchers are looking into whether the bird’s nest fern could
restore..........................................in areas where oil palm trees are grown.
Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers
Katharine L. Shester reviews a book by Jason Barr about the development of New York City
In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr takes the reader through a detailed history of New
York City. The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to
explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions
of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today. Building the Skyline is
organized into two distinct parts. The first is primarily historical and addresses New
York’s settlement and growth from 1609 to 1900; the second deals primarily with the
20th century and is a compilation of chapters commenting on different aspects of
New York’s urban development. The tone and organization of the book changes
somewhat between the first and second parts, as the latter chapters incorporate
aspects of Barr’s related research papers.
Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a ‘helicopter time-machine’ ride -
giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have
looked from the sky. He then moves on to a subterranean walking tour of the city,
indicating the location of rock and water below the subsoil, before taking the reader
back to the surface. His love of the city comes through as he describes various fun
facts about the location of the New York residence of early 19th-century vice-
president Aaron Burr as well as a number of legends about the city.
Chapters two and three take the reader up to the Civil War (1861-1865), with chapter
two focusing on the early development of land and the implementation of a grid
system in 1811. Chapter three focuses on land use before the Civil War. Both
chapters are informative and well researched and set the stage for the economic
analysis that comes later in the book. I would have liked Barr to expand upon his
claim that existing tenements* prevented skyscrapers in certain neighborhoods
because ‘likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary
“slum clearance’”. Later in the book, Barr makes the claim that the depth of bedrock**
was not a limiting factor for developers, as foundation costs were a small fraction of
the cost of development. At first glance, it is not obvious why slum clearance would
be limiting, while more expensive foundations would not.
Chapter four focuses on immigration and the location of neighborhoods and
tenements in the late 19th century. Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves
and analyzes their locations in terms of the amenities available in the area. Most of
these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries
located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods bordering Central Park.
Part two of the book begins with a discussion of the economics of skyscraper height.
In chapter five, Barr distinguishes between engineering height, economic height, and
developer height — where engineering height is the tallest building that can be safely
made at a given time, economic height is the height that is most efficient from
society’s point of view, and developer height is the actual height chosen by the
developer, who is attempting to maximize return on investment.
Chapter five also has an interesting discussion of the technological advances that led
to the construction of skyscrapers. For example, the introduction of iron and steel
skeletal frames made thick, load-bearing walls unnecessary, expanding the usable
square footage of buildings and increasing the use of windows and availability of
natural light. Chapter six then presents data on building height throughout the 20th
century and uses regression analysis to ‘predict’ building construction. While less
technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more
technical than would be preferred by a general audience.
Chapter seven tackles the ‘bedrock myth’, the assumption that the absence of
bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the
reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers. Rather, Barr
argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were
neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building
a skyscraper. What I enjoyed the most about this chapter was Barr’s discussion of
how foundations are actually built. He describes the use of caissons, which enable
workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until
they reach bedrock. Barr’s thorough technological history discusses not only how
caissons work, but also the dangers involved. While this chapter references empirical
research papers, it is a relatively easy read.
Chapters eight and nine focus on the birth of Midtown and the building boom of the
1920s. Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that
may serve as a distraction to readers primarily interested in New York. However, they
would be well-suited for undergraduates learning about the economics of cities. In
the next chapter, Barr considers two of the primary explanations for the building
boom of the 1920s — the first being exuberance, and the second being financing. He
uses data to assess the viability of these two explanations and finds that supply and
demand factors explain much of the development of the 1920s; though it enabled the
boom, cheap credit was not, he argues, the primary cause.
In the final chapter (chapter 10), Barr discusses another of his empirical papers that
estimates Manhattan land values from the mid-19th century to the present day. The
data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive. Toward the end
of the chapter, Barr assesses ‘whether skyscrapers are a cause or an effect of high
land values’. He finds that changes in land values predict future building height, but
the reverse is not true. The book ends with an epilogue, in which Barr discusses the
impact of climate change on the city and makes policy suggestions for New York going forward.
*a tenement: a multi-occupancy building of any sort, but particularly a run-down
apartment building or slum building
**bedrock: the solid, hard rock in the ground that lies under a loose layer of soil
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet. 27
What point does Shester make about Barr’s book in the first paragraph?
A. It gives a highly original explanation for urban development.
B. Elements of Barr’s research papers are incorporated throughout the book.
C. Other books that are available on the subject have taken a different approach.
D. It covers a range of factors that affected the development of New York. 28
How does Shester respond to the information in the book about tenements?
A. She describes the reasons for Barr’s interest.
B. She indicates a potential problem with Barr’s analysis.
C. She compares Barr’s conclusion with that of other writers.
D. She provides details about the sources Barr used for his research. 29
What does Shester say about chapter six of the book?
A. It contains conflicting data.
B. It focuses too much on possible trends.
C. It is too specialised for most readers.
D. It draws on research that is out of date. 30
What does Shester suggest about the chapters focusing on the 1920s building boom?
A. The information should have been organised differently.
B. More facts are needed about the way construction was financed.
C. The explanation that is given for the building boom is unlikely.
D. Some parts will have limited appeal to certain people. 31
What impresses Shester the most about the chapter on land values?
A. the broad time period that is covered
B. the interesting questions that Barr asks
C. the nature of the research into the topic
D. the recommendations Barr makes for the future
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage
3? In boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 32
The description in the first chapter of how New York probably looked from the air in
the early 1600s lacks interest. YES NO NOT GIVEN 33
Chapters two and three prepare the reader well for material yet to come. YES NO NOT GIVEN 34
The biggest problem for many nineteenth-century New York immigrant
neighbourhoods was a lack of amenities. YES NO NOT GIVEN 35
In the nineteenth century, New York’s immigrant neighbourhoods tended to
concentrate around the harbour. YES NO NOT GIVEN The bedrock myth
In chapter seven, Barr indicates how the lack of
bedrock close to the surface does
not explain why skyscrapers are absent from
36..........................................He points out that
although the cost of foundations increases when
bedrock is deep below the surface, this cannot be
regarded as 37........................................., especially
when compared to 38...........................................
A particularly enjoyable part of the chapter was Barr’s
account of how foundations are built. He describes not
only how 39......................................... are made
possible by the use of caissons, but he also discusses
their 40..........................................The chapter is well
researched but relatively easy to understand. A development plans B deep excavations C great distance D excessive expense E impossible tasks F associated risks G water level H specific areas I total expenditure J construction guidelines
C17 IELTS reading test 4 Bats to the rescue
How Madagascar’s bats are helping to save the rainforest
There are few places in the world where relations between agriculture and
conservation are more strained. Madagascar’s forests are being converted to
agricultural land at a rate of one percent every year. Much of this destruction is
fuelled by the cultivation of the country’s main staple crop: rice. And a key reason for
this destruction is that insect pests are destroying vast quantities of what is grown by
local subsistence farmers, leading them to clear forest to create new paddy fields.
The result is devastating habitat and biodiversity loss on the island, but not all
species are suffering. In fact, some of the island’s insectivorous bats are currently
thriving and this has important implications for farmers and conservationists alike.
Enter University of Cambridge zoologist Ricardo Rocha. He’s passionate about
conservation, and bats. More specifically, he’s interested in how bats are responding
to human activity and deforestation in particular. Rocha’s new study shows that
several species of bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control
service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, he believes, can ease the
financial pressure on farmers to turn forest into fields.
Bats comprise roughly one-fifth of all mammal species in Madagascar and thirty-six
recorded bat species are native to the island, making it one of the most important
regions for conservation of this animal group anywhere in the world.
Co-leading an international team of scientists, Rocha found that several species of
indigenous bats are taking advantage of habitat modification to hunt insects
swarming above the country’s rice fields. They include the Malagasy mouse-eared
bat, Major’s long-fingered bat, the Malagasy white-bellied free-tailed bat and Peters’ wrinkle-lipped bat.
‘These winner species are providing a valuable free service to Madagascar as
biological pest suppressors,’ says Rocha. ‘We found that six species of bat are
preying on rice pests, including the paddy swarming caterpillar and grass webworm.
The damage which these insects cause puts the island’s farmers under huge
financial pressure and that encourages deforestation.’
The study, now published in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and
Environment, set out to investigate the feeding activity of insectivorous bats in the
farmland bordering the Ranomafana National Park in the southeast of the country.
Rocha and his team used state-of-the-art ultrasonic recorders to record over a
thousand bat ‘feeding buzzes’ (echolocation sequences used by bats to target their
prey) at 54 sites, in order to identify the favourite feeding spots of the bats. They next
used DNA barcoding techniques to analyse droppings collected from bats at the different sites.
The recordings revealed that bat activity over rice fields was much higher than it was
in continuous forest - seven times higher over rice fields which were on flat ground,
and sixteen times higher over fields on the sides of hills - leaving no doubt that the
animals are preferentially foraging in these man-made ecosystems. The researchers
suggest that the bats favour these fields because lack of water and nutrient run-off
make these crops more susceptible to insect pest infestations. DNA analysis showed
that all six species of bat had fed on economically important insect pests. While the
findings indicated that rice farming benefits most from the bats, the scientists also
found indications that the bats were consuming pests of other crops, including the
black twig borer (which infests coffee plants), the sugarcane cicada, the macadamia
nut-borer, and the sober tabby (a pest of citrus fruits).
‘The effectiveness of bats as pest controllers has already been proven in the USA
and Catalonia,’ said co-author James Kemp, from the University of Lisbon. ‘But our
study is the first to show this happening in Madagascar, where the stakes for both
farmers and conservationists are so high.’
Local people may have a further reason to be grateful to their bats. While the animal
is often associated with spreading disease, Rocha and his team found evidence that
Malagasy bats feed not just on crop pests but also on mosquitoes - carriers of
malaria, Rift Valley fever virus and elephantiasis - as well as blackflies, which spread river blindness.
Rocha points out that the relationship is complicated. When food is scarce, bats
become a crucial source of protein for local people. Even the children will hunt them.
And as well as roosting in trees, the bats sometimes roost in buildings, but are not
welcomed there because they make them unclean. At the same time, however, they
are associated with sacred caves and the ancestors, so they can be viewed as
beings between worlds, which makes them very significant in the culture of the
people. And one potential problem is that while these bats are benefiting from
farming, at the same time deforestation is reducing the places where they can roost,
which could have long-term effects on their numbers. Rocha says, ‘With the right
help, we hope that farmers can promote this mutually beneficial relationship by installing bat houses.’
Rocha and his colleagues believe that maximising bat populations can help to boost
crop yields and promote sustainable livelihoods. The team is now calling for further
research to quantify this contribution. ‘I’m very optimistic,’ says Rocha. ‘If we give
nature a hand, we can speed up the process of regeneration.’ 1
Many Madagascan forests are being destroyed by attacks from insects. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 2
Loss of habitat has badly affected insectivorous bats in Madagascar. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 3
Ricardo Rocha has carried out studies of bats in different parts of the world. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 4
Habitat modification has resulted in indigenous bats in Madagascar becoming useful to farmers. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 5
The Malagasy mouse-eared bat is more common than other indigenous bat species in Madagascar. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 6
Bats may feed on paddy swarming caterpillars and grass webworms. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.
The study carried out by Rocha’s team Aim
• to investigate the feeding habits of bats in
farmland near the Ranomafana National Park Method
• ultrasonic recording to identify favourite feeding spots • DNA analysis of bat
7.......................................... Findings • the bats
- were most active in rice fields located on hills - ate pests of rice,
8.........................................., sugarcane, nuts and fruit
- prevent the spread of disease by
eating 9..........................................and blackflies
• local attitudes to bats are mixed: - they provide food rich in
10..........................................
- the buildings where they roost
become 11..........................................
- they play an important role in local
12..........................................
Recommendation • farmers should provide special
13..........................................to support the bat population
Does education fuel economic growth? A
Over the last decade, a huge database about the lives of southwest German villagers
between 1600 and 1900 has been compiled by a team led by Professor Sheilagh
Ogilvie at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Economics. It includes court records,
guild ledgers, parish registers, village censuses, tax lists and - the most recent
addition - 9,000 handwritten inventories listing over a million personal possessions
belonging to ordinary women and men across three centuries. Ogilvie, who
discovered the inventories in the archives of two German communities 30 years ago,
believes they may hold the answer to a conundrum that has long puzzled
economists: the lack of evidence for a causal link between education and a country’s economic growth. B
As Ogilvie explains, ‘Education helps us to work more productively, invent better
technology, and earn more ... surely it must be critical for economic growth? But, if
you look back through history, there’s no evidence that having a high literacy rate
made a country industrialise earlier.’ Between 1600 and 1900, England had only
mediocre literacy rates by European standards, yet its economy grew fast and it was
the first country to industrialise. During this period, Germany and Scandinavia had
excellent literacy rates, but their economies grew slowly and they industrialised late.
‘Modern cross-country analyses have also struggled to find evidence that education
causes economic growth, even though there is plenty of evidence that growth
increases education,’ she adds. C
In the handwritten inventories that Ogilvie is analysing are the belongings of women
and men at marriage, remarriage and death. From badger skins to Bibles, sewing
machines to scarlet bodices - the villagers’ entire worldly goods are included.
Inventories of agricultural equipment and craft tools reveal economic activities;
ownership of books and education-related objects like pens and slates suggests how
people learned. In addition, the tax lists included in the database record the value of
farms, workshops, assets and debts; signatures and people’s estimates of their age
indicate literacy and numeracy levels; and court records reveal obstacles (such as
the activities of the guilds*) that stifled industry.
Previous studies usually had just one way of linking education with economic growth
- the presence of schools and printing presses, perhaps, or school enrolment, or the
ability to sign names. According to Ogilvie, the database provides multiple indicators
for the same individuals, making it possible to analyse links between literacy,
numeracy, wealth, and industriousness, for individual women and men over the long term. D
Ogilvie and her team have been building the vast database of material possessions
on top of their full demographic reconstruction of the people who lived in these two
German communities. ‘We can follow the same people - and their descendants -
across 300 years of educational and economic change,’ she says. Individual lives
have unfolded before their eyes. Stories like that of the 24-year-olds Ana Regina and
Magdalena Riethmullerin, who were chastised in 1707 for reading books in church
instead of listening to the sermon. ‘This tells us they were continuing to develop their
reading skills at least a decade after leaving school,’ explains Ogilvie. The database
also reveals the case of Juliana Schweickherdt, a 50-year-old spinster living in the
small Black Forest community of Wildberg, who was reprimanded in 1752 by the
local weavers’ guild for ‘weaving cloth and combing wool, counter to the guild
ordinance’. When Juliana continued taking jobs reserved for male guild members,
she was summoned before the guild court and told to pay a fine equivalent to one
third of a servant’s annual wage. It was a small act of defiance by today’s standards,
but it reflects a time when laws in Germany and elsewhere regulated people’s access
to labour markets. The dominance of guilds not only prevented people from using
their skills, but also held back even the simplest industrial innovation. E
The data-gathering phase of the project has been completed and now, according to
Ogilvie, it is time ‘to ask the big questions’. One way to look at whether education
causes economic growth is to ‘hold wealth constant’. This involves following the lives
of different people with the same level of wealth over a period of time. If wealth is
constant, it is possible to discover whether education was, for example, linked to the
cultivation of new crops, or to the adoption of industrial innovations like sewing
machines. The team will also ask what aspect of education helped people engage
more with productive and innovative activities. Was it, for instance, literacy,
numeracy, book ownership, years of schooling? Was there a threshold level - a
tipping point - that needed to be reached to affect economic performance? F
Ogilvie hopes to start finding answers to these questions over the next few years.
One thing is already clear, she says: the relationship between education and
economic growth is far from straightforward. ‘German-speaking central Europe is an
excellent laboratory for testing theories of economic growth,’ she explains. Between
1600 and 1900, literacy rates and book ownership were high and yet the region
remained poor. It was also the case that local guilds and merchant associations were
extremely powerful and legislated against anything that undermined their
monopolies. In villages throughout the region, guilds blocked labour migration and
resisted changes that might reduce their influence.
‘Early findings suggest that the potential benefits of education for the economy can
be held back by other barriers, and this has implications for today,’ says Ogilvie.
‘Huge amounts are spent improving education in developing countries, but this
spending can fail to deliver economic growth if restrictions block people - especially
women and the poor - from using their education in economically productive ways. If
economic institutions are poorly set up, for instance, education can’t lead to growth.’
*guild: an association of artisans or merchants which oversees the practice of their
craft or trade in a particular area 14
an explanation of the need for research to focus on individuals with a fairly consistent income 15
examples of the sources the database has been compiled from 16
an account of one individual’s refusal to obey an order 17
a reference to a region being particularly suited to research into the link between education and economic growth 18
examples of the items included in a list of personal possessions
Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Demographic reconstruction of two German communities
The database that Ogilvie and her team has compiled sheds light on the lives of a
range of individuals, as well as those of their 19.........................................., over a
300-year period. For example, Ana Regina and Magdalena Riethmullerin were
reprimanded for reading while they should have been paying attention to a
20...........................................
There was also Juliana Schweickherdt, who came to the notice of the weavers’ guild
in the year 1752 for breaking guild rules. As a punishment, she was later given a
21...........................................Cases like this illustrate how the guilds could prevent
22..........................................and stop skilled people from working. 19 20 21 22
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about literacy rates in Section B?
A Very little research has been done into the link between high literacy rates and improved earnings.
B Literacy rates in Germany between 1600 and 1900 were very good.
C There is strong evidence that high literacy rates in the modern world result in economic growth.
D England is a good example of how high literacy rates helped a country industrialise.
E Economic growth can help to improve literacy rates. 23 24
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make in Section F about
guilds in German-speaking Central Europe between 1600 and 1900?
A They helped young people to learn a skill.
B They were opposed to people moving to an area for work.
C They kept better records than guilds in other parts of the world.
D They opposed practices that threatened their control over a trade.
E They predominantly consisted of wealthy merchants. 25 26
Timur Gareyev - blindfold chess champion A
Next month, a chess player named Timur Gareyev will take on nearly 50 opponents
at once. But that is not the hard part. While his challengers will play the games as
normal, Gareyev himself will be blindfolded. Even by world record standards, it sets a
high bar for human performance. The 28-year-old already stands out in the rarefied
world of blindfold chess. He has a fondness for bright clothes and unusual hairstyles,
and he gets his kicks from the adventure sport of BASE jumping. He has already
proved himself a strong chess player, too. In a 10-hour chess marathon in 2013,
Gareyev played 33 games in his head simultaneously. He won 29 and lost none. The
skill has become his brand: he calls himself the Blindfold King. B
But Gareyev’s prowess has drawn interest from beyond the chess-playing
community. In the hope of understanding how he and others like him can perform
such mental feats, researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA)
called him in for tests. They now have their first results. The ability to play a game of
chess with your eyes closed is not a far reach for most accomplished players,’ said
Jesse Rissman, who runs a memory lab at UCLA. ‘But the thing that’s so remarkable
about Timur and a few other individuals is the number of games they can keep active
at once. To me it is simply astonishing.’ C
Gareyev learned to play chess in his native Uzbekistan when he was six years old.
Tutored by his grandfather, he entered his first tournament aged eight and soon
became obsessed with competitions. At 16, he was crowned Asia’s youngest ever
chess grandmaster. He moved to the US soon after, and as a student helped his
university win its first national chess championship. In 2013, Gareyev was ranked the
third best chess player in the US. D
To the uninitiated, blindfold chess seems to call for superhuman skill. But displays of
the feat go back centuries. The first recorded game in Europe was played in 13th-
century Florence. In 1947, the Argentinian grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 45
simultaneous games in his mind, winning 39 in the 24-hour session. E
Accomplished players can develop the skill of playing blind even without realising it.
The nature of the game is to run through possible moves in the mind to see how they
play out. From this, regular players develop a memory for the patterns the pieces
make, the defences and attacks. ‘You recreate it in your mind,’ said Gareyev. ‘A lot of
players are capable of doing what I’m doing.’ The real mental challenge comes from
playing multiple games at once in the head. Not only must the positions of each piece
on every board be memorised, they must be recalled faithfully when needed, updated
with each player’s moves, and then reliably stored again, so the brain can move on to
the next board. First moves can be tough to remember because they are fairly
uninteresting. But the ends of games are taxing too, as exhaustion sets in. When
Gareyev is tired, his recall can get patchy. He sometimes makes moves based on
only a fragmented memory of the pieces’ positions. F
The scientists first had Gareyev perform some standard memory tests. These
assessed his ability to hold numbers, pictures and words in mind. One classic test
measures how many numbers a person can repeat, both forwards and backwards,
soon after hearing them. Most people manage about seven. ‘He was not exceptional
on any of these standard tests,’ said Rissman. ‘We didn’t find anything other than
playing chess that he seems to be supremely gifted at.’ But next came the brain
scans. With Gareyev lying down in the machine, Rissman looked at how well
connected the various regions of the chess player’s brain were. Though the results
are tentative and as yet unpublished, the scans found much greater than average
communication between parts of Gareyev’s brain that make up what is called the
frontoparietal control network. Of 63 people scanned alongside the chess player, only
one or two scored more highly on the measure. ‘You use this network in almost any
complex task. It helps you to allocate attention, keep rules in mind, and work out
whether you should be responding or not,’ said Rissman. G
It was not the only hint of something special in Gareyev’s brain. The scans also
suggest that Gareyev’s visual network is more highly connected to other brain parts
than usual. Initial results suggest that the areas of his brain that process visual
images - such as chess boards - may have stronger links to other brain regions, and
so be more powerful than normal. While the analyses are not finalised yet, they may
hold the first clues to Gareyev’s extraordinary ability. H
For the world record attempt, Gareyev hopes to play 47 blindfold games at once in
about 16 hours. He will need to win 80% to claim the title. ‘I don’t worry too much
about the winning percentage, that’s never been an issue for me,’ he said. The most
important part of blindfold chess for me is that I have found the one thing that I can
fully dedicate myself to. I miss having an obsession.’ 27
a reference to earlier examples of blindfold chess 28
an outline of what blindfold chess involves 29
a claim that Gareyev’s skill is limited to chess 30
why Gareyev’s skill is of interest to scientists 31
an outline of Gareyev’s priorities 32
a reason why the last part of a game may be difficult 33
In the forthcoming games, all the participants will be blindfolded. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 34
Gareyev has won competitions in BASE jumping. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 35
UCLA is the first university to carry out research into blindfold chess players. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN 36
Good chess players are likely to be able to play blindfold chess. TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
How the research was carried out The researchers started by testing Gareyev’s
37..........................................; for example, he was required to recall a string of
38..........................................in order and also in reverse order. Although his
performance was normal, scans showed an unusual amount of
39..........................................within the areas of Gareyev’s brain that are concerned
with directing attention. In addition, the scans raised the possibility of unusual
strength in the parts of his brain that deal with 40..........................................input.

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